History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 18 by Thomas Carlyle

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History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, called Frederick the Great (The works of Thomas Carlyle, v. 12-19)

History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Volume 18 (v. 18)

History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Volume 18

damned brood!'--Well, well. 'Solomon's Temple,' the Moslems say,'had to be built under the chirping of ten thousand Sparrows.'Ten thousand of them; committee of the whole house, unanimously ofthe opposite view;--and could not quite hinder it. That toois something!"--

More to our immediate purpose is this other thing: That theAustrians have been in Council of War; and, on deliberation, havedecided to come out of their defences; to quit their strong Camp,which lies so eligibly, ahead of Breslau and arear of Lissa and ofSchweidnitz Water yonder; to cross Schweidnitz Water, leave Lissabehind them; and meet this offensively aggressive Friedrich inpitched fight. Several had voted, No, why stir?--Daun especially,and others with emphasis. "No need of fighting at all," said Daun:"we can defend Schweidnitz Water; ruin him before he ever getacross." "Defend? Be assaulted by an Army like his?" urgesLucchesi, the other Chief General: "It is totally unworthy of us!We have gained the game; all the honors ours; let us have done withit. Give him battle, since he fortunately wishes it; we finish him,and gloriously finish the War too!" So argued Lucchesi, withvivacity, persistency,--to his own ill luck, but evidently withapproval from Prince Karl. Everybody sees, this is the way toPrince Karl's favor at present. "Have not I reconquered Silesia?"thinks Prince Karl to himself; and beams applause on the highcourse, not the low prudent one. [Kutzen, pp. 45-48.] In a word,the Austrians decide on stepping out to meet Friedrich in openbattle: it was the first time they ever did so; and it was likewisethe last.

Sunday, December 4th, at four in the morning, Friedrich has marchedfrom Parchwitz, straight towards the Austrian Camp; [Muller,p. 26.] he hears, one can fancy with what pleasure, that theAustrians are advancing towards him, and will not need to be forcedin their strong position. His march is in four columns, Friedrichin the vanguard; quarters to be Neumarkt, a little Town aboutfourteen miles off. Within some miles of Neumarkt, early in theafternoon, he learns that there are a thousand Croats in the place,the Austrian Bakery at work there, and engineer people marking outan Austrian Camp. "On the Height beyond Neumarkt, that will be?"thinks Friedrich; for he knows this ground, having often donereviews here; to Breslau all the way on both hands, not a rood ofit but is familiar to him. Which was a singular advantage, say thecritics; and a point the Austrian Council of War should have takenmore thought of.

Friedrich, before entering Neumarkt, sends a regiment to ridequietly round it on both sides, and to seize that Height he knowsof. Height once seized, or ready for seizing, he bursts the barrierof Neumarkt; dashes in upon the thousand Croats; flings out theCroats in extreme hurry, musketry and sabre acting on them;they find their Height beset, their retreat cut off, and that theymust vanish. Of the 1,000 Croats, "569 were taken prisoners, and120 slain," in this unexpected sweeping out of Neumarkt.Better still, in Neumarkt is found the Austrian Bakery, set up andin full work;--delivers you 80,000 bread-rations hot-and-hot, whichlittle expected to go such a road. On the Height, the Austrianstakes and engineer-tools were found sticking in the ground;so hasty had the flight been.

How Prince Karl came to expose his Bakery, his staff of life so farahead of him? Prince Karl, it is clear, was a little puffed up withhigh thoughts at this time. The capture of Schweidnitz, the late"Malplaquet" (poorish Anti-Bevern Malplaquet), capture of Breslau,and the low and lost condition of Friedrich's Silesian affairs, hadmore or less turned everybody's head,--everybody's exceptFeldmarschall Daun's alone:--and witty mess-tables, we alreadysaid, were in the daily habit of mocking at Friedrich's marchtowards them with aggressive views, and called his insignificantlittle Army the "Potsdam Guard-Parade." [Cogniazzo, ii. 417-422.]That was the common triumphant humor; naturally shared in by PrinceKarl; the ready way to flatter him being to sing in that tune.Nobody otherwise can explain, and nobody in any wise can justify,Prince Karl's ignorance of Friedrich's advance, his almostvoluntary losing of his staff-of-life in that manner.

MAP TO GO HERE--FACING PAGE 48, BOOK 18 continuation----

Prince Karl's soldiers have each (in the cold form) three days,provision in their haversacks: they have come across the WeistritzRiver (more commonly called Schweidnitz Water), which was also theheight of contemptuous imprudence; and lie encamped, this night,--in long line, not ill-chosen (once the River IS behind),--perpendicular to Friedrich's march, some ten miles ahead of him.Since crossing, they had learned with surprise, How their Bakeryand Croats had been snapt up; that Friedrich was not at a distance,but near;--and that arrangements could not be made too soon!Their position intersects the Great Road at right angles, as wehint; and has villages, swamps, woody knolls; especially, on eachwing, good defences. Their right wing leans on Nypern and itsimpassable peat-bogs, a Village two or three miles north from theGreat Road; their centre is close behind another Village calledLeuthen, about as far south from it: length of their bivouac isabout five miles; which will become six or so, had Nadasti oncetaken post, who is to form the left wing, and go down as far asSagschutz, southward of Leuthen. Seven battalions are in thisVillage of Leuthen, eight in Nypern, all the Villages secured;woods, scraggy abatis, redoubts, not forgotten: their cannon arenumerous, though of light calibre. Friedrich has at least 71 heavypieces; and 10 of them are formidably heavy,--brought from thewalls of Glogau, with terrible labor to Ziethen; but with excellenteffect, on this occasion and henceforth. They got the name of"Boomers, Bellowers (DIE BRUMMER)," those Ten. Friedrich was ingreat straits about artillery; and Retzow Senior recommended thishauling up of the Ten Bellowers, which became celebrated in theyears coming. And now we are on the Battle-ground, and must lookinto the Battle itself, if we can.

Chapter X.

BATTLE OF LEUTHEN.

From Neumarkt, on Monday, long before day, the Prussians, all but asmall party left there to guard the Bakery and Army Properties, areout again; in four columns; towards what may lie ahead.Friedrich, as usual in such cases, for obvious reasons, rides withthe vanguard. To Borne, the first Village on the Highway, is someseven or eight miles. The air is damp, the dim incipiences of dawnstruggling among haze; a little way on this side Borne, we come onranks of cavalry drawn across the Highway, stretching right andleft into the dim void: Austrian Army this, then? Push up to it;see what it is, at least.

It proves to be poor General Nostitz, with his three Saxonregiments of dragoons, famous since Kolin-day, and a couple ofHussar regiments, standing here as outpost;--who ought to have beenmore alert; but they could not see through the dark, and so,instead of catching, are caught. The Prussians fall upon them,front and flank, tumble them into immediate wreck; drive the wholeoutpost at full gallop home, through Borne, upon Nypern and theright wing,--without news except of this symbolical sort.Saxon regiments are quite ruined, "540 of them prisoners" (poorNostitz himself not prisoner, but wounded to death [Died inBreslau, the twelfth day after (Seyfarth, ii. 362).]); and theground clear in this quarter.

Friedrich, on the farther side of Borne, calls halt, till the mainbody arrive; rides forward, himself and staff, to the highest of arange or suite of knolls, some furlongs ahead; sees there in fullview, far and wide, the Austrians drawn up before him. From Nypernto Sagschuitz yonder; miles in length; and so distinct, while thelight mended and the hazes faded, "that you could have counted them[through your glasses], man by man." A highly interesting sight toFriedrich; who continues there in the profoundest study, and callsup some horse regiments of the vanguard to maintain this Height andthe range of Heights running south from it. And there, I think, theKing is mainly to be found, looking now at the Austrians, now athis own people, for some three hours to come. His plan of Battle issoon clear to him: Nypern, with its bogs and scrags, on theAustrian right wing, is tortuous impossible ground, as he wellremembers, no good prospect for us there: better ground for us ontheir left yonder, at Leuthen, even at Sagschutz farther south,whither they are stretching themselves. Attempt their left wing;try our "Oblique Order" upon that, with all the skill that is inus; perhaps we can do it rightly this time, and prosperaccordingly! That is Friedrich's plan of action. The four columnsonce got to Borne shall fall into two; turn to the right, and gosouthward, ever southward:--they are to become our two Lines ofBattle, were they once got to the right point southward.Well opposite Sagschutz, that will be the point for facing to left,and marching up,--in "Oblique Order," with the utmost facultythey have!

"The Oblique Order, SCHRAGE STELLUNG," let the hasty reader pauseto understand, "is an old plan practised by Epaminondas, andrevived by Friedrich,--who has tried it in almost all his Battlesmore or less, from Hohenfriedberg forward to Prag, Kolin, Rossbach;but never could, in all points, get it rightly done till now, atLeuthen, in the highest time of need. "It is a particularmanoeuvre," says Archenholtz, rather sergeant-wise, "which indeedother troops are now [1793] in the habit of imitating; but which,up to this present time, none but Prussian troops can execute withthe precision and velocity indispensable to it. You divide yourline into many pieces; you can push these forward stairwise, sothat they shall halt close to one another," obliquely, to eitherhand; and so, on a minimum of ground, bring your mass of men to therequired point at the required angle. Friedrich invented this modeof getting into position; by its close ranking, by its depth, andthe manner of movement used, it had some resemblance to the"Macedonian Phalanx,"--chiefly in the latter point, I should guess;for when arrived at its place, it is no deeper than common."Forming itself in this way, a mass of troops takes up inproportion very little ground; and it shows in the distance, byreason of the mixed uniforms and standards, a totally chaotic massof men heaped on one another," going in rapid mazes this way andthat. "But it needs only that the Commander lift his finger;instantly this living coil of knotted intricacies develops itselfin perfect order, and with a speed like that of mountain riverswhen the ice breaks,"--is upon its Enemy. [Archenholtz, i. 209.]

"Your Enemy is ranked as here, in long line, three or two to one.You march towards him, but keep him uncertain as to how you willattack; then do on a sudden march up, not parallel to him, butoblique, at an angle of 45 degrees,--swift, vehement, inoverpowering numbers, on the wing you have chosen. Roll that wingtogether, ruined, in upon its own line, you may roll the whole fivemiles of line into disorder and ruin, and always be in overpoweringnumber at the point of dispute. Provided, only, you are swiftenough about it, sharp enough! But extraordinary swiftness,sharpness, precision is the indispensable condition;--by no meanstry it otherwise; none but Prussians, drilled by an Old Dessauer,capable of doing it. This is the SCHRAGE ORDNUNG, about which therehas been such commentating and controversying among militarypeople: whether Friedrich invented it, whether Caesar did it, howEpaminondas, how Alexander at Arbela; how"--Which shall not in theleast concern us on this occasion.

The four columns rustled themselves into two, and turned southwardon the two sides of Borne;--southward henceforth, for about twohours; as if straight towards the Magic Mountain, the Zobtenberg,far off, which is conspicuous over all that region.Their steadiness, their swiftness and exactitude wereunsurpassable. "It was a beautiful sight," says Tempelhof, an eye-witness: "The heads of the columns were constantly on the samelevel, and at the distance necessary for forming; all flowed onexact, as if in a review. And you could read in the eyes of ourbrave troops the noble temper they were in." [Tempelhof, i. 288,287.] I know not at what point of their course, or for how long,but it was from the column nearest him, which is to be first line,that the King heard, borne on the winds amid their field-music, asthey marched there, the sound of Psalms,--many-voiced melody of aChurch Hymn, well known to him; which had broken out, bandaccompanying, among those otherwise silent men. The fact is verycertain, very strange to me: details not very precise, except thathere, as specimen, is a verse of their Hymn:--

One has heard the voice of waters, one has paused in the mountainsat the voice of far-off Covenanter psalms; but a voice like this,breaking the commanded silences, one has not heard. "Shall we orderthat to cease, your Majesty?" "By no means," said the King;whose hard heart seems to have been touched by it, as might wellbe. Indeed there is in him, in those grim days, a tone as of trustin the Eternal, as of real religious piety and faith, scarcelynoticeable elsewhere in his History. His religion, and he had inwithered forms a good deal of it, if we will look well, beiugalmost always in a strictly voiceless state,--nay, ultra-voiceless,or voiced the wrong way, as is too well known. "By no means!"answered he: and a moment after, said to some one, Ziethenprobably: "With men like these, don't you think I shall havevictory this day!"

The loss of their Saxon Forepost proved more important to theAustrians than it seemed;--not computable in prisoners, or killedand wounded. The Height named Scheuberg,--"Borne Rise" (so we mightcall it, which has got its Pillar of memorial since, with giltVictory atop [Not till 1854 (Kutzen, pp. 194, 195).];--whereFriedrich now is and where the Austrians are not, is at once ascreen and a point of vision to Friedrich. By loss of their NostitzForepost, they had lost view of Friedrich, and never could recoverview of him; could not for hours learn distinctly what he wasabout; and when he did come in sight again, it was in a mostunexpected place! On the farther side of Borne, edge of the bigexpanse of open country there, Friedrich has halted; ridden withhis adjutants to the top of "the Scheuberg (Shy-HILL)," as theBooks call it, though it is more properly a blunt Knoll or "Rise,"--the nearest of a Chain of Knolls, or swells in the ground, whichruns from north to south on that part.

Except the Zobtenberg, rising blue and massive, on the southernhorizon (famous mythologic Mountain, reminding you of an ARTHUR'SSEAT in shape too, only bigger and solitary), this Country, formany miles round, has nothing that could be called a Hill; it isdefinable as a bare wide-waving champaign, with slight bumps on it,or slow heavings and sinkings. Country mostly under culture, thoughit is of sandy quality; one or two sluggish brooks in it; and reedymeres or mires, drained in our day. It is dotted with Hamlets ofthe usual kind; and has patches of scraggy fir. Your horizon, evenwhere bare, is limited, owing to the wavy heavings of the ground;windmills and church-belfries are your only resource, and eventhese, from about Leuthen and the Austrian position, leave theBorne quarter mostly invisible to you. Leuthen Belfry, the samewhich may have stood a hundred years before this Battle, ends in asmall tile-roof, open only at the gables:--"Leuthen Belfry," says arecent Tourist, "is of small resource for a view. To south you cansee some distance, Sagschutz, Lobetintz and other Hamlets, amidscraggy fir-patches, and meadows, once miry pools; but to north youare soon shut in by a swell or slow rise, with two windmills uponit [important to readers at present]; and to eastward [Breslau sideand Lissa side], or to westward [Friedrich's side], one has noview, except of the old warped rafters and their old mouldy tileswithin few inches; or, if by audacious efforts at each end, to therisk of your neck, you get a transient peep, it is stopt, far shortof Borne, by the slow irregular heavings, with or without fir aboutthem." [Tourist's Note, PENES ME.]

In short, Friedrich keeps possession of that Borne ridge of Knolls,escorted by Cavalry in good numbers; twinkling about in anenigmatic way:--"Prussian right wing yonder," think the Austrians--"whitherward, or what can they mean?"--and keeps his own columnsand the Austrian lines in view; himself and his movementsinvisible, or worse, to the Austrian Generals from any spy-glass orconjecture they can employ.

The Austrian Generals are in windmills, on church-belfries, here,there; diligently scanning the abstruse phenomenon, of which solittle can be seen. Daun, who had always been against thisadventure, thinks it probable the vanished Prussians are retiringsouthward: for Bohemia and our Magazines probably. "These goodpeople are smuggling off (DIE GUTEN LEUTE PASCHEN AB)," said he:"let them go in peace." [Muller, p. 36.] Daun, that morning, in hisreconnoitrings, had asked of a peasant, "What is that, then?"(meaning the top of a Village-steeple in the distance, but thoughtby the peasant to be meaning something nearer hand). "That is theHill our King chases the Austrians over, when he is reviewinghere!" Which Daun reported at head-quarters with a grin.[Nicolai, Anekdoten, iv. 34.]

Lucchesi, on the other hand, scanning those Borne Hills, and thecavalry of Friedrich's escort twinkling hither and thither on them,becomes convinced to a moral certainty, That yonder is the PrussianVanguard, probable extremity of left wing; and that he, Lucchesi,here at Nypern, is to be attacked. "Attacked, you?" said oneMontazet, French Agent or Emissary here: "unless they were snipes,it is impossible!" But Lucchesi saw it too well.

He sends to say that such is the evident fact, and that he,Lucchesi, is not equal to it, but must have large reinforcement ofHorse to his right wing. "Tush!" answer Prince Karl and Daun; andreturn only argument, verbal consolation, to distressed Lucchesi.Lucchesi sends a second message, more passionately pressing, to thelike effect; also with the like return. Upon which he sends a thirdmessage, quite passionate: "If Cavalry do not come, I will not beresponsible for the issue!" And now Daun does collect the requiredreinforcement; "all the reserve of Horse, and a great many from theleft wing;"--and, Daun himself heading them, goes off at a swifttrot; to look into Lucchesi and his distresses, three or four milesto right, five or six from where the danger lies. Now isFriedrich's golden moment.

Wending always south, on their western or invisible side of thoseKnolls, Friedrich's people have got to about the level, or LATITUDEas we might call it, of Nadasti's left. To Radaxdorf, namely, toLobetintz, or still farther south, and perhaps a mile to west ofNadasti. Friedrich has mounted to Lobetintz Windmill; and judgesthat the time is come. Daun and Cavalry once got to support theirright wing, and our south latitude being now sufficient, Friedrich,swift as Prussian manoeuvring can do it, falls with all hisstrength upon their left wing. Forms in oblique order,--horse,foot, artillery, all perfect in their paces; and comes streamingover the Knolls at Sagschutz, suddenly like a fire-deluge onNadasti, who had charge there, and was expecting no such adventure!How Friedrich did the forming in oblique order was at that time amystery known only to Friedrich and his Prussians: but soldiers ofall countries, gathering the secret from him, now understand it,and can learnedly explain it to such as are curious. Will readerstake a touch more of the DRILL-SERGEANT?

"You go stairwise (EN ECHELON)," says he: "first battalion starts,second stands immovable till the first have done fifty steps;at the fifty-first, second battalion also steps along;third waiting for ITS fifty-first step. First battalion [rightmostbattalion or leftmost, as the case may be; rightmost in thisLeuthen case] doing fifty steps before the next stirs, and eachbattalion in succession punctually doing the same:" march along onthese terms,--or halt at either end, while you advance at theother,--it is evident you will swing yourself out of the parallelposition into any degree of obliquity. And furthermore, merely byhalting and facing half round at the due intervals, you shoveyourself to right or to left as required (always to right in thisLeuthen case): and so--provided you CAN march as a pair ofcompasses would--you will, in the given number of minutes, impingeupon your Enemy's extremity at the required angle, and overlap himto the required length: whereupon, At him, in flank, in front, andrear, and see if he can stand it! "A beautiful manoeuvre" saysCaptain Archenholtz; "devised by Friedrich," by Friedrichinheriting Epaminondas and the Old Dessauer; "and which perhapsonly Friedrich's men, to this day, could do with therequisite perfection."

Nadasti, a skilful War-Captain, especially with Horse, wasbeautifully posted about Sagschutz; his extreme left folded up ENPOTENCE there (elbow of it at Sagschutz, forearm of it running toGohlau eastward); POTENCE ending in firwood Knolls with Croatmusketeers, in ditches, ponds, difficult ground, especially towardsGohlau. He has a strong battery, 14 pieces, on the Height to rearof him, at the angle or elbow of his POTENCE; strong abatis, wellmanned in front to rightwards: upon this, and upon the Croats inthe firwood, the Prussians intend their attack. General Wedell isthere, Prince Moritz as chief, with six battalions, and theirbatteries, battery of 10 Brummers and another; Ziethen also andHorse: coming on, in swift fire-flood, and at an angle of forty-five degrees. Most unexpected, strange to behold! From southwestyonder; about one o'clock of the day.

Nadasti, though astonished at the Prussian fire-deluge, stands tohis arms; makes, in front, vigorous defence; and even takes, insome sort, the initiative,--that is, dashes out his Cavalry onZiethen, before Ziethen has charged. Ziethen's Horse, who arerightmost of the Prussians: and are bare to the right,--groundoffering no bush, no brook there (though Ziethen, foreseeing suchdefect, has a clump of infantry near by to mend it),--reel backunder this first shock, coming downhill upon them; and would havefared badly, had not the clump of infantry instantly opened fire onthe Nadasti visitors, and poured it in such floods upon them, thatthey, in their turn, had to reel back. Back they, well out ofrange;--and leave Ziethen free for a counter-attack shortly, oneasier terms, which was successful to him. For, during that firsttussle of his, the Prussian Infantry, to left of Ziethen, hasattacked the Sagschutz Firwood; clears that of Croats;attacks Nadasti's line, breaks it, their Brummer battery potentlyassisting, and the rage of Wedell and everybody being extreme.So that, in spite of the fine ground, Nadasti is in a bad way, onthe extreme left or outmost point of his POTENCE, or tactical KNEE.Round the knee-pan or angle of his POTENCE, where is the abatis, hefares still worse. Abatis, beswept by those ten Brummers and otherBatteries, till bullet and bayonet can act on it, speedily givesway. "They were mere Wurtembergers, these; and could not stand!"cried the Austrians apologetically, at a great rate, afterwards;as if anybody could well have stood.

Indisputably the Wurtembergers and the abatis are gone; and theBrandenburgers, storming after them, storm Nadasti's interiorbattery of 14 pieces; and Nadasti's affairs are rapidly gettingdesperate in this quarter. Figure Prince Karl's scouts, gallopingmadly to recall that Daun Cavalry! Austrian Battalions, plenty ofthem, rush down to help Nadasti; but they are met by the crowdingfugitives, the chasing Prussians; are themselves thrown intodisorder, and can do no good whatever. They arrive on the groundflurried, blown; have not the least time to take breath and order:the fewest of them ever got fairly ranked, none of them ever stoodabove one push: all goes rolling wildly back upon the centre aboutLeuthen. Chaos come on us;--and all for mere lack of time:could Nadasti but once stretch out one minute into twenty! But hecannot. Nadasti does not himself lose head; skilfully covers theretreat, trying to rally once and again. Not for the first fewfurlongs, till the ditches, till the firwood, quagmires are alldone, could Ziethen, now on the open ground, fairly hew in;"take whole battalions prisoners;" drive the crowd in an altogetherstormy manner; and wholly confound the matter in this part.

Prince Karl, his messengers flying madly, has struggled as manseldom did to put himself in some posture about Leuthen, to get upsome defences there. Leuthen itself, the churchyard of itespecially, is on the defensive. Men are bringing cannon to thewindmills, to the swelling ground on the north side of Leuthen;they dig ditches, build batteries,--could they but make Time halt,and Friedrich with him, for one quarter of an hour. But theycannot. By the extreme of diligence, the Austrians have in somemeasure swung themselves into a new position, or imperfect Lineround Leuthen as a centre,--Lucchesi, voluntarily or by order,swinging southwards on the one hand; Nadasti swinging northwards bycompulsion;--new Line at an angle say of 75 degrees to the old one.And here, for an hour more, there was stiff fighting, the stiffestof the day;--of which, take one direct glimpse, from the Austrianside, furnished by a Young Gentleman famous afterwards:--

Leuthen, let us premise, is a long Hamlet of the usual litterysort; with two rows, in some parts three, of farm-houses, barns,cattle-stalls; with Church, or even with two Churches, a Protestantand a Catholic; goes from east to west above a mile in length. Withthe wrecks of Nadasti tumbling into it pell-mell from thesoutheast, and Lucchesi desperately endeavoring to swing round fromthe northwest, not quite incoherently, and the Prussian fire-stormfor accompaniment, Leuthen is probably the most chaotic place inthe Planet Earth during that hour or so (from half-past two tohalf-past three) while the agony lasted. At one o'clock Nadasti wasattacked; at two he is tumbling in mid-career towards Leuthen:I guess the date of this Excerpt, or testimony by a Notable Eye-witness, may be half-past two; crisis of the agony just about tobegin: and before four it was all finished again. Eye-witness isthe young Prince de Ligne, now Captain in an Austrian Regiment ofFoot; and standing here in this perilous posture, having beencalled in as part of the Reserve. He says:--

"Cry had risen for the Reserve," in which was my regiment, "andthat it must come on as fast as possible,"--to Leuthen, west of usyonder. "We ran what we could run. Our Lieutenant-Colonel fellkilled almost at the first; beyond this we lost our Major, andindeed all the Officers but three,--three only, and about eleven ortwelve of the Voluuteer or Cadet kind. We had crossed twosuccessive ditches, which lay in an orchard to left of the firsthouses in Leuthen; and were beginning to form in front of theVillage. But there was no standing of it. Besides a generalcannonade such as can hardly be imagined, there was a rain of case-shot upon this Battalion, of which I, as there was no Colonel left,had to take command; and a third Battalion of the Royal PrussianFoot-guards, which had already made several of our regiments passthat kind of muster, gave, at a distance of eighty paces, theliveliest fire on us. It stood as if on the parade-ground, thatthird Battalion, and waited for us, without stirring.

"The Austrian regiment Andlau, at our right hand, could not getitself formed properly by reason of the houses; it was standingthirty deep, and sometimes its shot hit us on the back. On my leftthe Austrian regiment Merci ran its ways; and I was glad of that,in comparison. By no method or effort could I get the dragoons ofBathyani, who stood fifty yards in rear of me, to cut in a little,and help me out,"--no good cutting hereabouts, think the dragoonsof Bathyani. "My soldiers, who were still tired with running, andhad no cannon (these either from necessity or choice they had leftbehind), were got scattered, fewer in number, and were fightingmainly out of sullenness. More our honor, than the notion of doinggood in the affair, prevented us from running off. An Ensign of theregiment Arberg helped me awhile to form, from his and my ownfragments, a kind of line; but he was shot down. Two Officers ofthe Grenadiers brought me what they still had. Some Hungarians,too, were luckily got together. But at last, as, with all helpsand the remnants of my own brave Battalion, I had come down to atmost 200, I drew back to the Height where the Windmill is,"[Kutzen p. 103 (from "Prince de Ligne's DIARY, i. 63, GermanTranslation").]--where many have drawn back, and are standing insheltered places, a hundred deep, say our Books.

Stiff fighting at Leuthen; especially furious till LeuthenChurchyard, a place with high stone walls, was got. LeuthenVillage, we observe, was crammed with Austrians spitting fire fromevery coign of vantage; Church and Churchyard especially are acitadel of death. Cannon playing from the Windmill Heights, too;--moments are inestimable. The Prussian Commander (name charitablyhidden) at Leuthen Churchyard seems to hesitate in the murderousfire-deluge: Major Mollendorf, namable from that day forward,growling, "No time this for study," dashes out himself, "EIN ANDRERMANN (Follow me, whoever is a man)!"--smashes in the Church-Gate ofthe place, nine muskets blazing on him through it; smashes, after adesperate struggle, the Austrians clean out of it, and conquers thecitadel. [Muller, p. 42.]

The Austrians, on confused terms, made stiff dispute in this secondposition for about an hour. The Prussian Reserve was ordered up byFriedrich; the Prussian left wing, which had stood "refused," aboutRadaxdorf, till now: at one time nearly all the Prussians were infire. Friedrich is here, is there, wherever the press was greatest;"Prince Ferdinand," whom we now and then find named, as a diligentlittle fellow, and ascertain to be here in this and other Battlesof Friedrich's,--"Prince Ferdinand at one time pointed his cannonon the Bush or Fir-Clump of Radaxdorf;--an aide-de-camp came to himwith message: "You are firing on the King; the King is yonder!"At which Ferdinand [his dear little Brother] ERSCHRACK," or almostfainted with terror. [Kutzen, p. 110.]

Stiff dispute; and had the Austrians possessed the Prussiandexterity in manoeuvring, and a Friedrich been among them,--perhaps? But on their own terms, there was from the first littlehope in it. "Behind the Windmills they are a hundred men deep;"by and by, your Windmills, riddled to pieces, have to be abandoned;the Prussian left wing rushing on with bayonets, will not all ofyou have to go? Lucchesi, with his abundant Cavalry, seeing thislatter movement and the Prussian flank bare in that part, will do astroke upon them;--and this proved properly the finale of thematter, finale to both Lucchesi and it.

The Prussian flank was to appearance bare in that leftward quarter;but only to appearance: Driesen with the left wing of Horse is in aHollow hard by; strictly charged by Friedrich to protect saidflank, and take nothing else in hand. Driesen lets Lucchesi gallopby, in this career of his; then emerges, ranked, and comes stormingin upon Lucchesi's back,--entirely confounding his astonishedCavalry and their career. Astonished Cavalry, bullet-storm on thisside of them, edge of sword on that, take wing in all directions(or all except to west and south) quite over the horizon;Lucchesi himself gets killed,--crosses a still wider horizon, poorman. He began the ruin, and he ends it. For now Driesen takes thebared Austrians in flank, in rear; and all goes tumbling here too,and in few minutes is a general deluge rearward towards Saara andLissa side.

At Saara the Austrians, sun just sinking, made a third attempt tostand; but it was hopelessly faint this time; went all asunder atthe first push; and flowed then, torrent-wise, towards all itsBridges over the Schweidnitz Water, towards Breslau by everymethod. There are four Bridges, Stabelwitz below Lissa;Goldschmieden, Hermannsdorf, above; and the main one at Lissaitself, a standing Bridge on the Highroad (also of wood); and bythis the chief torrent flows; Prussian horse pursuing vigorously;Prussian Infantry drawn up at Saara, resting some minutes, aftersuch a day's work. [Archenholtz, i. 209; Seyfarth, Beylagen, ii. 243-252 (by an eye-witness, intelligentsuccinct Account of the Battle and previous March; ib. 252-272,of the Sieges &c. following); Preuss, ii. 112, &c.; Tempelhof,i. 276.]

Truly a memorable bit of work; no finer done for a hundred years,or for hundreds of years; and the results of it manifold, immediateand remote. About 10,000 Austrians are left on the field, 3,000 ofthem slain; prisoners already 12,000, in a short time 21,000;flags 51, cannon 116;--"Conquest of Silesia" gone to water;Prince Karl and Austria fallen from their high hopes in one day.The Prussians lost in killed 1,141, in wounded 5,118; 85 had beentaken prisoners about Sagschutz and Gohlau, in the first strugglethere. [Kutzen, pp. 118, 125.] There and at Leuthen Village hadbeen the two tough passages; about an hour each; in three hours theBattle was done. "MEINE HERREN," said Friedrich that night atparole, "after such a spell of work, you deserve rest. This daywill bring the renown of your name, and of the Nation's, to thelatest posterity."

High and low had shone this day; especially these four:Ziethen, Driesen, Retzow,--and above all Moritz of Dessau.Riding up the line, as night fell, Friedrich, in passing Moritz andthe right wing, drew bridle for an instant: "I congratulate you onthe Victory, Herr Feldmarschall!" cried he cheerily, and withemphasis on the last word. Moritz, still very busy, answeredslightly; and Friedrich repeated louder, "Don't you hear that Icongratulate you, Herr FELDMARSCHALL!"--a glad sound to Moritz, whoever since Kolin had stood rather in the shadow. "You have helpedme, and performed every order, as none ever did before in anybattle," added the grateful King.

Riding up the line, all now grown dusky, Friedrich asks, "Anybattalion a mind to follow me to Lissa?" Three battalionsvolunteering, follow him; three are plenty. At Saara, on the GreatRoad, things are fallen utterly dark. "Landlord, bring a lantern,and escort." Landlord of the poor Tavern at Saara escortsobediently; lantern in his right hand, left hand holding by theKing's stirrup-leather,--King (Excellency or General, as theLandlord thinks him) wishing to speak with the man. Will the readerconsent to their Dialogue, which is dullish, but singular to havein an authentic form, with Nicolai as voucher? [ Anekdoten,iii. 231-235.] Like some poor old horse-shoe, ploughed up on thefield. Two farthings worth of rusty old iron; now little other thana curve of brown rust: but it galloped at the Battle of Leuthen;that is something!--

KING. "Come near; catch me by the stirrup-leather [Landlord withlantern does so]. We are on the Breslau Great Road, that goesthrough Lissa, are n't we?"LANDLORD. "Yea, Excellenz."KING. "Who are you?"LANDLORD. "Your Excellenz, I am the KRATSCHMER [Silesian forLandlord] at Saara."KING. "You have had a great deal to suffer, I suppose."LANDLORD. "ACH, your Excellenz, had not I! For the last eight-and-forty hours, since the Austrians came across Schweidnitz Water, mypoor house has been crammed to the door with them, so many servantsthey have; and such a bullying and tumbling:--they have driven mehalf mad; and I am clean plundered out."KING. "I am sorry indeed to hear that!--Were there Generals too inyour house? What said they? Tell me, then."LANDLORD. "With pleasure, your Excellenz. Well; yesterday noon, Ihad Prince Karl in my parlor, aud his Adjutants and people allcrowding about. Such a questioning aud bothering! Hundreds camedashing in, and other hundreds were sent out: in and out they wentall night; no sooner was one gone, than ten came. I had to keep aroaring fire in the kitchen all night; so many Officers crowding toit to warm themselves. And they talked and babbled this and that.One would say, That our King was coming on, then, 'with his PotsdamGuard-Parade.' Another answers, 'OACH, he dare n't come! He willrun for it; we will let him run.' But now my delight is, our Kinghas paid them their fooleries so prettily this afternoon!"KING. "When got you rid of your high guests?"LANDLORD. "About nine this morning the Prince got to horse; and notlong after three, he came past again, with a swarm of Officers;all going full speed for Lissa. So full of bragging when they came;and now they were off, wrong side foremost! I saw how it was.And ever after him, the flood of them ran, Highroad not broadenough,--an hour and more before it ended. Such a pell-mell, such awelter, cavalry and musketeers all jumbled: our King must havegiven them a dreadful lathering. That is what they have got bytheir bragging and their lying,--for, your Excellenz, these peoplesaid too, 'Our King was forsaken by his own Generals, all hisfirst people had gone and left him:' what I never in this worldwill believe."KING (not liking even rumor of that kind). "There you are right;never can such a thing be believed of my Army."LANDLORD (whom this "MY" has transfixed). "MEIN GOTT, you are ourGNADIGSTER KONIG (most gracious King) yourself! Pardon, pardon, if,in my stupidity, I have--"KING. "No, you are an honest man:--probably a Protestant?"LANDLORD. "JOA, JOA, IHR MAJESTAT, I am of your Majesty's creed!"

Crack-crack! At this point the Dialogue is cut short by suddenmusket-shots from the woody fields to right; crackle of abouttwelve shots in all; which hurt nothing but some horse's feet,--hadbeen aimed at the light, and too low. Instantly the light is blownout, and there is a hunting out of Croats; Lissa or environs notevacuated yet, it seems; and the King's Entrance takes place undervolleyings and cannonadings.

King rides directly to the Schloss, which is still a fine handsomehouse, off the one street of that poor Village,--north side ofstreet; well railed off, and its old ditches aud defences nowtrimmed into flower-plots. The Schloss is full of AustrianOfficers, bustling about, intending to quarter, when the Kingenters. They, and the force they still had in Lissa, could easilyhave taken him: but how could they know? Friedrich was surprised;but had to put the best face on it. [In Kutzen (pp. 121, 209 etseq.) explanation of the true circumstances, and source of themistake.] "BON SOIR, MESSIEURS!" said he, with a gay tone, steppingin: "Is there still room left, think you?" The Austrians, bowing tothe dust, make way reverently to the divinity that hedges a King ofthis sort; mutely escort him to the best room (such the popularaccount); and for certain make off, they and theirs, towards theBridge, which lies a little farther east, at the end ofthe Village.

Weistritz or Schweidnitz Water is a biggish muddy stream in thatpart; gushing and eddying; not voiceless, vexed by mills and theirweirs. Some firing there was from Croats in the lower houses of theVillage, and they had a cannon at the farther bridge-end; but theywere glad to get away, and vanish in the night; muddy Weistritzsinging hoarse adieu to their cannon and them. Prussian grenadiersplunged indignant into the houses; made short work of themusketries there. In few minutes every Croat and Austrian wasacross, or silenced otherwise too well; Prussian cannon now goingin the rear of them, and continuing to go,--such had been theorder, "till the powder you have is done." Fire of musketry andoccasional cannon lasts all night, from the Lissa or Prussian sideof the River,--"lest they burn this Bridge, or attempt somemischief." A thing far from their thoughts, in presentcircumstances.

The Prussian host at Saara, hearing these noises, took to its armsagain; and marched after the King. Thick darkness; silence;tramp, tramp:--a Prussian grenadier broke out, with solemn tenorvoice again, into Church-Music; a known Church-Hymn, of the homelyTE-DEUM kind; in which five-and-twenty thousand other voices, andall the regimental bands, soon join:--

"Now thank God, one and all, With heart, with voice, with hands-a, Who wonders great hath done To us and to all lands-a."

And thus they advance; melodious, far-sounding, through the hollowNight, once more in a highly remarkable manner. A pious people, ofright Teutsch stuff, tender though stout; and, except perhapsOliver Cromwell's handful of Ironsides, probably the most perfectsoldiers ever seen hitherto. Arriving at the end of Lissa, andfinding all safe as it should be there, they make their bivouac,their parallelogram of two lines, miles long across the fields,left wing resting on Lissa, right on Guckerwitz; and--having, Ishould think, at least tobacco to depend on, with abundant stick-fires, and healthy joyful hearts--pass the night in a thankful,comfortable manner.

Leuthen was the most complete of all Friedrich's victories;two hours more of daylight, as Friedrich himself says, and it wouldhave been the most decisive of this century. [ OEuvres deFrederic, iv. 167.] As it was, the ruin of this bigArmy, 80,000 against 30,000, ["89,200 was the Austrian strengthbefore the Battle" (deduct the Garrisons of Schweidnitz andLiegnitz): Preuss, ii. 109 (from the STAFF-OFFICERS).] was as goodas total; and a world of Austrian hopes suddenly collapsed; and alltheir Silesian Apparatus, making sure of Silesia beyond an IF, wastumbled into wreck,--by this one stroke it had got, smiting thecorner-stone of it as if with unexpected lightning. On the morrowafter Leuthen, Friedrich laid siege to Breslau; Karl had left agarrison of 17,000 in it, and a stout Captain, one Sprecher,determined on defence: such interests hung on Breslau, suchimmensities of stores were in it, had there been nothing else.Friedrich, pushing with all his strength, in spite of bad weatherand of Sprecher's industrious defence, got it in twelve days.[7th-19th December: DIARIUM, &c. of it in Helden-Geschichte, iv. 955-961.] Sprecher had posted placardson the gallows and up and down, terrifically proclaiming that anyman convicted of mentioning surrender should be instantly hanged:but Friedrich's bombardment was strong, his assaults continual;and the ditches were threatening to freeze. On the seventh day ofthe siege, a Laboratorium blew up; on the ninth, a Powder-Magazine,carrying a lump of the rampart away with it. Sprecher had tocapitulate: Prisoners of War, we 17,000; our cannons, ammunitions(most opulent, including what we took from Bevern lately);these, we and Breslau altogether, alas, it is all yours again.Liegnitz Garrison, seeing no hope, consented to withdraw on leave.[26th December: Helden-Geschichte, iv. 1016.]Schweidnitz cannot be besieged till Spring come: exceptSchweidnitz, Maria Theresa, the high Kaiserinn, has no foot ofground in Silesia, which she thought to be hers again.Gone utterly, Patents and all; Schweidnitz alone waiting tillspring. To the lively joy of Silesia in general; to the thrice-lively sorrow and alarm of certain individuals, leading CatholicEcclesiastics mainly, who had misread the signs of the times inlate months! There is one Schaffgotsch, Archbishop or head-man ofthem, especially, who is now in a bad way. Never was such royalfavor; never such ingratitude, say the Books at wearisome length.Schaffgotsch was a showy man of quality, nephew of the quondamAustrian Governor, whom Friedrich, across a good deal of Papal andother opposition, got pushed into the Catholic Primacy, and tooksome pains to make comfortable there,--Order of the Black Eagle,guest at Potsdam, and the like;--having a kind of fancy for theairy Schaffgotsch, as well as judging him suitable for thisSilesian High-Priesthood, with his moderate ideas and qualityways,--which I have heard were a little dissolute withal. To thewhole of which Schaffgotsch proved signally traitorous and ingrate;and had plucked off the Black Eagle (say the Books, nearlybreathless over such a sacrilege) on some public occasion, prior toLeuthen, and trampled it under his feet, the unworthy fellow.Schaffgotsch's pathetic Letter to Friedrich, in the new daysposterior to Leuthen, and Friedrich's contemptuous inexorableanswer, we could give, but do not: why should we? O King, I knowyour difficulties, and what epoch it is. But, of a truth, your airydissolute Schaffgotsch, as a grateful "Archbishop and Grand-Vicar,"is almost uglier to me than as a Traitor ungrateful for it;and shall go to the Devil in his own way! They would not have himin Austria; he was not well received at Rome; happily died beforelong. [Preuss, ii. 113, 114; Kutzen, pp. 12, 155-160, for the realparticculars.] Friedrich was not cruel to Schaffgotsch or theothers, contemptuously mild rather; but he knew henceforth what toexpect of them, and slightly changed this and that in his Silesianmethods in consequence.

Of Prince Karl let us add a word. On the morrow after Leuthen,Captain Prince de Ligne and old Papa D'Ahremberg could find littleor no Army; they stept across to Grabschen, a village on the safeside of the Lohe, and there found Karl and Daun: "rather silent,both; one of them looking, 'Who would have thought it!' the other,'Did n't I tell you?'"--and knowing nothing, they either, where theArmy was. Army was, in fact, as yet nowhere. "Croat fellows, inthis Farmstead of ours," says De Ligne, "had fallen to shootingpigeons." The night had been unusually dark; the Austrian Army hadsquatted into woods, into office-houses, farm-villages, over a widespace of country; and only as the day rose, began to dribble in.By count, they are still 50,000; but heart-broken, beaten as menseldom were. "What sound is that?" men asked yesterday at Brieg,forty miles off; and nobody could say, except that it was some hugeBattle, fateful of Silesia and the world. Breslau had it louder;Breslau was still more anxious. "What IS all that?" asked somebody(might be Deblin the Shoemaker, for anything I know) of an Austriansentry there: "That? That is the Prussians giving us such a beatingas we never had." What news for Deblin the Shoemaker, if he isstill above ground!--

"Prince Karl, gathering his distracted fragments, put 17,000 intoBreslau by way of ample garrison there; and with the rest made offcircuitously for Schweidnitz; thence for Landshut, and down theMountains, home to Konigsgratz,--self and Army in the most wreckedcondition. Chased by Ziethen; Ziethen (sticking always to the hocksof them,' as Friedrich eagerly enjoins on him; or sometimes it is,'sitting on the breeches of them:' for about a fortnight to come.[Eleven Royal Autographs: in Blumenthal, Life of DeZiethen (ii. 94-111), a feeble incorrect Translationof them.] Ziethen took 2,000 prisoners; no end of baggages, ofwagons left in the difficult places: wild weather even for Ziethen,still more for Karl, among the Silesian-Bohemian Hill-roads:heavy rains, deep muds, then sudden glass, with cutting snow-blasts: 'An Army not a little dilapidated,' writes Prince Karl,almost with tears in his eyes; (Army without linens, withoutclothes; in condition truly sad and pitiable; and has always, soclose are the enemy, to encamp, though without tents.'[Kutzen, p. 134 ("Prince Karl to the Kaiser, December 14th").].Did not get to Konigsgratz, and safe shelter, for ten days more.Counted, at Konigsgratz in the Christmas time, 37,000 rank andfile,--'22,000 of whom are gone to hospital,' by theDoctor's report.

"Universal astonishment, indignation, even incredulity, is thehumor at Vienna: the high Kaiserinn herself, kept in the dark forsome time, becomes dimly aware; and by Kaiser Franz's own adviceshe relieves Prince Karl from his military employments, andappoints Daun instead. Prince Karl withdrew to his Government ofthe Netherlands; and with the aid of generous liquors, and whatnatural magnanimity he had, spent a noiseless life thenceforth;Sword laid entirely on the shelf; and immortal Glory, as ofAlexander and the like, quite making its exit from the scene,convivial or other. 'The first General in the world,' so he used tobe ten years ago, in Austria, in England, Holland, the thrice-greatest of Generals: but now he has tried Friedrich in Fivepitched Battles (Czaslau, Hohenfriedberg, Sohr, then Prag, thenLeuthen);--been beaten every time, under every form ofcircumstance; and now, at Leuthen, the fifth beating is such, nopublic, however ignorant, can stand it farther. The ignorant publicchanges its long-eared eulogies into contumeliously horrid shrieksof condemnation; in which one is still farther from joining.'That crossing of the Rhine,' says Friedrich, 'was a BELLE CHOSE;but flatterers blew him into dangerous self-conceit; besides, hewas ill-obeyed, as others of us have been.' ["Prince de Ligne, Memoires snr Frederic (Berlin, 1789), p. 38 " (Preuss, ii.112).] Adieu to him, poor red-faced soul;--and good liquor to him,--at least if he can take it in moderation!"

The astonishment of all men, wise and simple, at this suddenoversetting of the scene of things, and turning of the gazetteer-diplomatic theatre bottom uppermost, was naturally extreme,especially in gazetteer and diplomatic circles; and the admiration,willing or unwilling, of Friedrich, in some most essential pointsof him, rose to a high pitch. Better soldier, it is clear, has notbeen heard of in the modern ages. Heroic constancy, couragesuperior to fate: several clear features of a hero;--pity he weresuch a liar withal, and ignorant of common honesty; thought thesimple sort, in a bewildered manner, endeavoring to forget thelatter features, or think them not irreconcilable. Military judgesof most various quality, down to this day, pronounce Leuthen to beessentially the finest Battle of the century; and indeed one of theprettiest feats ever done by man in his Fighting Capacity.Napoleon, for instance, who had run over these Battles of Friedrich(apparently somewhat in haste, but always with a word upon themwhich is worth gathering from such a source), speaks thus ofLeuthen: "This Battle is a masterpiece of movements, of manoeuvres,and of resolution; enough to immortalize Friedrich, and rank himamong the greatest Generals. Manifests, in the highest degree, bothhis moral qualities and his military." [Montholon, Memoires &c., de Napoleon, vii. 211. This NapoleonSUMMARY OF FRIEDRICH'S CAMPAIGNS, and these brief Bits ofCriticism, are pleasant reading, though the fruit evidently ofslight study, and do credit to Napoleon perhaps still more thanto Friedrich.]

How the English Walpoles, in Parliament and out of it; how thePrussian Sulzers, D'Argenses, the Gazetteer and vague public, mayhave spoken and written at that time, when the matter was fresh andon everybody's tongue,--judge still by two small symptoms which wehave to show:--

1. A LETTER OF FRIEDRICH'S TO D'ARGENS (Durgoy, near Breslau, 19thDecember, 1757).--"Your friendship seduces you, MON CHER; I am buta paltry knave (POLISSON) in comparison with 'Alexander,' and notworthy to tie the shoe-latchets of 'Caesar'! Necessity, who is themother of industry, has made me act, and have recourse to desperateremedies in evils of a like nature.

"We have got here [this day, by capitulation of Breslau] fromfourteen to fifteen thousand prisoners: so that, in all, I haveabove twenty-three thousand of the Queen's troops in my hands,fifteen Generals, and above seven hundred Officers. 'T is a plasteron my wounds, but it is far enough from healing them.

"I am now about marching to the Mountain region, to settle thechain of quarters there; and if you will come, you will find theroads free and safe. I was sorry at the Abbe's treason,"--paltry DePrades, of whom we heard enough already. [ OEuvres deFrederic, xix. 47.]

2. A POTTERY-APOTHEOSIS OF FRIEDRICH.--"There stands on thismantel-piece," says one of my Correspondents, the amiableSmelfungus, in short, whom readers are acquainted with, "a smallChina Mug, not of bad shape; declaring itself, in one obscurecorner, to be made at Worcester, 'R. I., Worcester, 1757' (late inthe season, I presume, demand being brisk); which exhibits, allround it, a diligent Potter's-Apotheosis of Friedrich, hastily gotup to meet the general enthusiasm of English mankind. Worth, whileit lasts unbroken, a moment's inspection from you inhurrying along.

"Front side, when you take our Mug by the handle for drinking fromit, offers a poor well-meant China Portrait, labelled KING OFPRUSSIA: Copy of Friedrich's Portrait by Pesne, twenty years tooyoung for the time, smiling out nobly upon you; upon whom theredescends with rapidity a small Genius (more like a Cupid who hadhastily forgotten his bow, and goes headforemost on another errand)to drop a wreath on this deserving head;--wreath far too small forever getting on (owing to distance, let us hope), though theartless Painter makes no sign; and indeed both Genius and wreath,as he gives them, look almost like a big insect, which the Kingwill be apt to treat harshly if he notice it. On the opposite side,again, separated from Friedrich's back by the handle, is anenormous image of Fame, with wings filling half the Mug, with twotrumpets going at once (a bass, probably, and a treble), who flieswith great ease; and between her eager face end the unexpectant oneof Friedrich (who is 180 degrees off, and knows nothing of it)stands a circular Trophy, or Imbroglio of drums, pikes, muskets,cannons, field-flags and the like; very slightly tied together,--the knot, if there is one, being hidden by some fantastic bit ofscroll or escutcheon, with a Fame and ONE trumpet scratched on it;--and high out of the Imbroglio rise three standards inscribed withNames, which we perceive are intended to be names of Friedrich'sVictories; standards notable at this day, with Names which I willpunctually give you.

"Standard first, which flies to the westward or leftward, has'Reisberg' (no such place on this distracted globe, but meaningBevern's REICHENBERG, perhaps),--'Reisberg,' 'Prague,' 'Collin.'Middle standard curves beautifully round its staff, and gives us toread, 'Welham' (non-extant, too; may mean WELMINA or Lobositz),'Rossbach' (very good), 'Breslau' (poor Bevern's, thought a VICTORYin Worcester at this time!). Standard third, which flies toeastward or right hand, has 'Neumark' (that is, NEUMARKT and theAustrian Bread-ovens, 4th December); 'Lissa' (not yet LEUTHEN inEnglish nomenclature); and 'Breslau' again, which means the captureof Breslau CITY this time, and is a real success, 7th-19thDecember;--giving us the approximate date, Christmas, 1757, to thishasty Mug. A Mug got up for temporary English enthusiasm, and theaccidental instruction of posterity. It is of tolerable China;holds a good pint, 'To the Protestant Hero, with all the honors;'--and offers, in little, a curious eyehole into the then England,with its then lights and notions, which is now so deep-hidden fromus, under volcanic ashes, French Revolutions, and the wrecks of aHundred very decadent Years."

Chapter XI.

WINTER IN BRESLAU: THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS.

Friedrich, during those grand victories, is suffering sadly inhealth, "COLIQUE DEPUIS HUIT JOURS, neither sleep nor appetite;""eight months of mere anguishes and agitations do wear one down."He is tired too, he says, of the mere business-talk, coarse andrugged, which has been his allotment lately; longs for some humanlyroofed kind of lodging, and a little talk that shall have flavor init. [Letters of his to Prince Henri (December 26th, &c.: OEuvres, xxvi. 167, 169; Stenzel, v: 123).] The troopsonce all in their Winter-quarters, he sits down in Breslau as hisown wintering-place: place of relaxation,--of rest, or at least ofchanged labor,--no man needing it more. There for some three monthshe had a tolerable time; perhaps, by contrast, almost a delightful.Readers must imagine it; we have no details allowed us, nor anytime for them even if we had.

There come various visitors, various gayeties,--King's Birthday(January 24th); quality Balls, "at which Royal Majesty sometimesdeigned to show himself." A lively Breslau, in comparison.Sister Amelia paid a beautiful visit of a fortnight or more:Sister Amelia, and along with her, two married Cousins (onceMargravines of Schwedt), whose Husbands, little Brother Ferdinand,and Eugen of Wurtemberg, are wintering here. The Marquis d'Argens,how exquisitely treated we shall see, is a principal figure;Excellency Mitchell, deep in very important business just now, isanother. Reader de Catt (he who once, in a Dutch River-Boat, gotinto conversation with the snuffy gentleman in black wig) made hisnew appearance, this Winter,--needed now, since De Prades is off."Should you have known me again?" asked Friedrich. "Hardly, in thatdress; besides, your Majesty looks thinner." "That I can believe,with the cursed life I have been leading!" [Rodenbeck, i. 285.]There came also, day not given, a Captain Guichard ("Major QuintusIcilius" that is to be) with his new Book on the Art Military ofthe Ancients, MEMOIRES MILITAIRES SUR LES GRECS ET LES ROMAINS;[a La Haye, 2 tomes, 4to, 1757 (Nicolai, Anekdoten, italic> vi. 134)] which cannot but be welcome to Friedrich. A solidaccount of that matter, by the first man who ever understood bothWar and Greek. Far preferable to Folard's, a man without Greek atall, and with military ideas not a little fantastic here and there.Of Captain Guichard, were his Book once read, and himself a littleknown, there will be more to say. For the present, fancy himretained as supernumerary:--and in regard to Friedrich's Wintergenerally, accept the following small hints, small but direct:--

FRIEDRICH TO D'ARGENS (three different times).

1. ON THE ROAD TO LEUTHEN "(Torgau, 15th November 1757). ... I havebeen obliged to have the Abbe arrested [De Prades, of whom enough,long since]; he has been playing the spy, and I have many evidentproofs of it. That is very infamous and very ungrateful.--I havemade a prodigious quantity of verses (PRODIGIEUSEMENT DE VERS).If I live, I will show them you in Winter-quarters: if I perish,they are bequeathed to you, and I have ordered that they be putinto your hand. ...

"Adieu, my dear Marquis. I fancy you to be in bed: don't rotthere;--and remember you have promised to join me inWinter-quarters;"--on this latter point Friedrich is very urgent,amiably eager; prepared to wrap the poor Marquis in cotton, andcarry him and lodge him, like glass with care. [ OEuvres deFrederic, ] xix, 43.] For example:--

2. WHILE SETTLING THE WINTER-QUARTERS ("Striegau, 26th December,1757:" Siege of Breslau done ten days ago). ... "What a pleasure tohear you are coming! Your travelling you can do in your own way.I have chosen a party of Light Horse (JAGER), who will appear atBerlin to conduct you. You can make short journeys: the first toFrankfurt, the second to Crossen, the third to Grunberg, fourth toGlogau, fifth to Parchwitz, sixth to Breslau. I have directed thathorses be ordered for you, that your rooms be warmed everywhere,and good fowls ready on all roads. Your apartment in this House[Royal House in Breslau, which the King has built for himself yearsago] is carpeted, hermetically shut. You shall suffer nothing fromdraughts or from noise." [Ib. xix. 48.]--Lucky Marquis; what aLandlord! Came accordingly; stayed till deep in April,--waitinglatterly for weather, I perceive; long after the King himself wasoff. Thus:--

3. FRIEDRICH ON THE FIELD AGAIN FOR FIVE WEEKS PAST ("Munsterberg,23d April, 1758"). "Adieu, dear Marquis; I fancy you are now inBerlin again. Go to Charlottenburg whenever and how you like; takecare of yourself; and be ready for the beginning of October next!--As to me, MON CHER, I am off to fight windmills and ostriches(AUTRUCHES), that is, Russians and Austrians (AUTRICHIENS). Adieu,MON CHER." [ OEuvres de Frederic, xix. 49.]

There circulated in the Newspapers, this Winter, something of whatwas called a LETTER from Friedrich to Maria Theresa, formallyproposing Peace, after these magnificent successes. And certainly,of all things in the Earth, Friedrich would have best liked Peace,this year, last year, and for the next five years: "Go home, then,good neighbors; don't break into my house, don't cut my poorthroat, and we will be friends again!" Friedrich, it appears, hadactually, finding or making opportunity, sent some polite Letter,of pacific tenor, in his light clever way, to that address;--notwithout momentary hopes of perhaps getting good from it.[In PREUSS, ii. 130 (Friedrich's Letter mostly given;--bearer aPrince van Lobkowitz, prisoner at Leuthen, now going home onhandsome terms) Stenzel, v. 124 (for the PER-CONTRA feeling).]And the Kaiserinn herself, Austria's high Mother, did, they say,after such a Leuthen coming on the back of such a Rossbach, feeldiscouraged; but the Pompadour (not France's Mother, whatever shemight be to France) was of far other mind: "Do not speak of it, MAREINE! Double or quits, that is our game: can we yield for a littleill-luck? Never!"

France dismisses its D'Argenson, "What Armies are these of his;flying home on us, like draggled poultry, across the Rhine!"--summons the famed Belleisle to be War-Minister, and give things aneagle-quality: ["26th February, 1758" (BARBIER, iv. 258).]France engages to pay its subsidies better (France now the generalpaying party, Austria, Sweden, Russia itself, all looking toFrance,--would she were as punctual as England used to be!),--in aword, engages to be magnanimous extremely, and will hear of nothingbut persistence. "Shall not we reap, then, where there is such aharvest standing white to us?" Kaunitz admits that there never willagain be such a chance.--Peace, it is clear enough, will not be gotof these people by any Letter, or human device whatever, exceptsimply by uttermost, more or less miraculous fighting for it.Friedrich is profoundly aware of this fact;--is busy completing hisArmy: 145,000 for the field, this Year, 53,000 the Silesian part,"a good many of them Austrian deserters;" [Stenzel, v. 155.] and isclosing an important Subsidy Treaty with England,--of whichmore anon.

And if this is the mood in France and Austria, think what Russia'swill be! The Czarina is not dead of dropsy, as some had expected,but, on the contrary, alive, and fiercer than ever; furious againstApraxin, and determined that Fermor, his successor, shall defyWinter, and begin work at once. She has indignantly dismissedApraxin (to be tried by Court-Martial, he); dismisses Bestuchef theChancellor; appoints a new General, Fermor by name; orders Fermorto go and lose not a moment, now in the depth of Winter since itwas not done in the crown of Summer, and take possession of EastPreussen in her name.

Which Fermor does; 16th January, crosses the border again, 31,000in all, without opposition except from the frost; plants himself upand down,--only two poor Prussian battalions there; who retire,with their effects, especially "with seven wagons of money."January 22d, Fermor enters Konigsberg; publishes no end ofproclamations, manifestoes, rescripts, to inform the poor people,trembling at the Cossack atrocities of last Year, "That his augustSovereign Elizabeth of All the Russias has now become Proprietressof East Preussen, which shall be perfectly protected andexquisitely well-governed henceforth; and that all men of officialor social position have, accordingly, to come and take the oath toher, with the due alacrity and punctuality, at their peril."

No man is willing for the operation, most men shudder at it;but who can help them? Surely it was an unblessed operation.Poor souls, one pities them; for at heart they were, and continued,loyal to their own King; thoroughly abhorrent of becoming Russian,as Czarish Majesty has thoroughly resolved they shall. Some fewabsconded, leaving their property as spoil; the rest swore, withmental reservation, with shifts, such as they could devise:--forexample, some were observed to swear with gloves on; the righthand, which they held up, was a mere right FIST with a stuffedglove at the end of it,--SO help me Beelzebub (or whoever is therecording Angel here)! [ Helden-Geschichte, v.141-149: Preuss, ii. 145, iii. 578, iv. 477, &c.] And thus doesPreussen, with astonishment, as by the spell of a Czarina Circe,find itself changed suddenly to Russian: and does not recover theold human form till four years hence,--when, again suddenly, as weshall see, the Circe and her wand chance to get broken.

Friedrich could not mend or prevent this bad Business; but was sodisgusted with it, he never set foot in East Preussen again,--nevercould bear to behold it, after such a transformation into temporaryRussian shape. I cannot say he abhorred this constrained Oath as Ishould have done: on the contrary, in the first spurt ofindignation, he not only protested aloud, but made reprisals,--"Swear ME those Saxons, then!" said he; and some poor magistratesof towns, and official people, had to make a figure of swearing (ifnot allegiance altogether, allegiance for the time being), in thesame sad fashion, till one's humor cooled again. [Preuss, ii. 163:Oath given in Helden-Geschichte, v. 631.]East Preussen, lost in this way, held by its King as before, ormore passionately now than ever; still loved Friedrich, say theBooks; but it is Russia's for the present, and the mischief isdone. East Preussen itself, Circe Czarina cherishing it as her own,had a much peaceabler time: in secret it even sent moneys,recruits, numerous young volunteers to Friedrich; much more, hopesand prayers. But his disgust with the late transformation byenchantment was inexpiable.

It was May or June, as had been anticipated, before the Russianmain Army made its practical appearance in those parts. Fermor had,in the interim, seized Thorn, seized Elbing ("No offence,magnanimous Polacks, it is only for a time!"),--and would fain havehad Dantzig too, but Dantzig would n't. Not till June 16th did theunwieldy mass (on paper 104,000, and in effect, and exclusive ofCossack rabble, about 75,000) get on way; and begin slowlystaggering westward. Very slowly, and amid incendiary fire andhorrid cruelty, as heretofore;--and in August coming we shall besure to hear of it.

Lehwald was just finishing with the Swedes,--had got them allbottled up in Stralsund again, about New-Year's time, when theseRussians crossed into Preussen. We said nothing of the Swedishso-called Campaign of last Year;--and indeed are bound to be nearlysilent of that and of all the others. Five Campaigns of them, or atleast Four and a half; such Campaigns as were never made before orsince. Of Campaign 1757, the memorable feature is, that of thewhole "Swedish Division," as the laughing Newspapers called it,which was "put to flight by five Berlin Postilions;"--substantiallya truth, as follows:--

"Night of September 12th-13th, 1757, the Swedes, 22,000 strong, didat last begin business; crossed Peene River, the boundary betweentheir Pommern and ours; and, having nothing but some fractions ofMilitia to oppose them, soon captured the Redoubts there;spread over Prussian Pommern, and on into the Uckermark;diligently raising contributions, to a heavy amount. No less than90,000 pounds in all for this poor Province; though, by a strangeaccident, 60,000 pounds proved to be the actual sum.

"Towards the end of October they had got as much as 60,000 poundsfrom the northern parts of Uckermark, Prentzlow being their head-quarter during that operation; and they now sent out a Detachmentof 200 grenadiers and 100 dragoons towards Zehdenick, anotherlittle Town, some forty miles farther south, there to wring out theremaining sum. The Detachment marched by night, not courtingnotice; but people had heard of its coming; and five PrussianPostilions,--shifty fellows, old hussars it may be, at any rateskilful on the trumpet, and furnished with hussar jackets and anold pistol each, determined to do something for their Country.The Swedish Detachment had not marched many miles, when,--after orbefore some flourishes of martial trumpeting,--there verily fell onthe Swedish flank, out of a clump of dark wood, five shots, andwounded one man. To the astonishment and panic of the other twohundred and ninety-nine; who made instant retreat, under new shotsand trumpet-tones, as if it were from five whole hussar regiments;retreat double-quick, to Prentzlow; alarm waxing by the speed;alarm spreading at Prentzlow itself: so that the whole Division gotto its feet, recrossed the Peene; and Uckermark had nothing more topay, for that bout! This is not a fable, such as go in theNewspapers," adds my Authority, "but an accurate fact:" [Helden-Geschichte, iv. 764, 807; Archenholtz, i.160.]--probably, in our day, the alone memorable one of that"Swedish War."

"The French," says another of my Notes, "who did the subsidying allround (who paid even the Russian Subsidy, though in Austria'sname), had always an idea that the Swedes--22,000 stout men, thisyear, 4,000 of them cavalry--might be made to co-operate with theRussians; with them or with somebody; and do something effective inthe way of destroying Friedrich. And besides their subsidies andbribings, the French took incredible pains with this view;incessantly contriving, correspondencing, and running to and frobetween the parties: [For example: M. le Marquis de Montalembert,CORRESPONDANCE AVEC &c., ETANT EMPLOYE PAR LE ROI DE FRANCE AL'ARMEE SUEDOISE, 1757-1761 ("with the Swedish Army," yes, andsometimes with the Russian,--and sometimes on the French Coasts,ardently fortifying against Pitt and his Descents there:--a veryintelligent, industrious, observant man; still amusing to read, ifone were idler), A LONDRES (evidently Paris), 1777, 3 vols. small8vo. Then, likewise very intelligent, there is a Montazet, aMortaigne, a Caulaiucourt; a CAMPAGNE DES RUSSES EN 1757; &c. &c.,--in short, a great deal of fine faculty employed there in spinningropes from sand.] but had not, even from the Russians and CzarishMajesty, much of a result, and from the Swedes had absolutely noneat all. By French industry and flagitation, the Swedish Army wasgenerally kept up to about 20,000: the soldiers were expert withtheir fighting-tools, knew their field-exercise well; had fineartillery, and were stout hardy fellows: but the guidance of themwas wonderful. 'They had no field-commissariat,' says one Observer,'no field-bakery, no magazines, no pontoons, no light troops; and,'among the Higher Officers, 'no subordination.' [Archenholtz, i.158.] Were, in short, commanded by nobody in particular. Commandedby Senator Committee-men in Stockholm; and, on the field, byGenerals anxious to avoid responsibility; who, instead of acting,held continual Councils of War. The history of their Campaigns,year after year, is, in summary, this:--

"Late in the season (always late, War-Offices at home, andCaptaincies here, being in such a state), they emerged fromStralsund, an impregnable place of their own,--where the men, Iobserve, have had to live on dried fishy substances, instead ofnatural boiled oatmeal; [Montalembert, i. 32-37, 335. 394, &c.(that of the demand for Neise PORRIDGE, which interested me, Icannot find again).] and have died extensively in consequence:--they march from Stralsund, a forty or thirty miles, till they reachthe Swedish-Pommern boundary, Peene River; a muddy sullen stream,flowing through quagmire meadows, which are miles broad, on eachshore. River unfordable everywhere; only to be crossed in four orfive places, where paved causeways are. The Swedes, withdeliberation, cross Peene; after some time, capture the bits ofRedoubts, and the one or two poor Prussian Towns upon it;Anklam Redoubt, PEENE-MUNDE (Peene-mouth) Redoubt; and rove forwardinto Prussian Pommern, or over into the Uckermark, for fifty, for ahundred miles; exacting contributions; foraging what they can;making the poor country-people very miserable, and themselves nothappy,--their soldiers 'growing yearly more plunderous,' saysArchenholtz, 'till at length they got, though much shyer of murder,to resemble Cossacks,' in regard to other pleas of the crown.

"There is generally some fractional regiment or two of Prussianforce, left under some select General Manteuffel, Colonel Belling;who hangs diligently on the skirts of them, exploding by allopportunities. There have been Country Militias voluntarily got onfoot, for the occasion; five or six small regiments of them;officered by Prussian Veterans of the Squirearchy in those parts;who do excellent service. The Governor of Stettin, Bevern, our oldSilesian friend, strikes out now and then, always vigilant, promptand effective, on a chance offering. This, through Summer, is whatopposition can be made: and the Swedes, without magazines, scout-service, or the like military appliances, but willing enough tofight [when they can see], and living on their shifts, will roveinward, perhaps 100 miles; say southwestward, say southeastward[towards Ruppin, which we used to know],--they love to keepMecklenburg usually on their flank, which is a friendly Country.Small fights befall them, usually beatings; never anythingconsiderable. That is their success through Summer.

"Then, in Autumn, some remnant more of Prussian regulars arrive,disposable now for that service; upon which the Swedes are drivenover Peene again (quite sure to be driven, when the River with itsquagmires freezes); lose Anklam Redoubt, Peene-munde Redoubt;lose Demmin, Wollin; are followed into Swedish Pommern, oftenest tothe gates of Stralsund, and are locked up there, there and in Rugenadjoining, till a new season arrive."--This year (1757-1758),Lehwald, on turning the key of Stralsund, might have done a finefeat; frost having come suddenly, and welded Rugen to mainland."What is to hinder you from starving them into surrender?"signifies Friedrich, hastily: "Besiege me Stralsund!" Which Lehwalddid; but should have been quicker about it; or the thaw came toosoon, and admitted ships with provision again. Upon which Lehwaldresigned, to a General Graf von Dohna; and went home, as grown tooold: and Dohna kept them bottled there till the usual RussianAdvent (deep in June); by which time, what with limited stockfishdiet, what with sore labor (breaking of the ice, whenever frostreappeared) and other hardship, more than half of them had died.--"Every new season there was a new General tried; but without theleast improvement. There was mockery enough, complaint enough;indignant laughter in Stockholm itself; and the Dalecarliansthought of revolting: but the Senator Committee-men held firm,ballasted by French gold, for four years.

"The Prussian Militias are a fine trait of the matter; aboutfifteen regiments in different parts;--about five in Pommern, whichset the example; which were suddenly raised last Autumn by theSTANDE themselves, drilled in Stettin continually, while the Swedeswere under way, and which stood ready for some action, underveterans of the squirearchy, when the Swedes arrived. They werekept up through the War. The STANDE even raised a little fleet,[Archenholtz, i. 110.] river fleet and coast fleet, twelvegunboats, with a powerful carronade in each, and effective men andcaptain; a great check on plundering and coast mischief, till theSwedes, who are naval, at last made an effort and destroyedthem all."

Friedrich was very sensible of these procedures on the part of hisSTANDE; and perhaps readers are not prepared for such, or forothers of the like, which we could produce elsewhere, in a Countrywithout Constitution to speak of. Friedrich raises no new taxes,--except upon himself exclusively, and these to the very blood:--Friedrich gets no Life-and-Fortune Addresses of the vocal orprinted sort, but only of the acted. Very much the preferable kind,where possible, to all parties concerned. These poor militias andflotillas one cheerfully puts on record; cheerfully nothing else,in regard to such a Swedish War;--nor shall we henceforth insultthe human memory by another word upon it that is not indispensable.

OF THE ENGLISH SUBSIDY.

One of Friedrich's most important affairs, at present,--vitallyconnected with his Army and its furnishings, which is the all-important,--was his Subsidy Treaty with England. It is the thirdtreaty he has signed with England in regard to this War; the secondin regard to subsidy for it; and it is the first that takes realpractical effect. It had cost difficulty in adjusting, not a littlecorrespondence and management from Mitchell; for the King is veryshy about subsidy, though grim necessity prescribes it asinevitable; and his pride, and his reflections on the last SubsidyTreaty, "One Million sterling, Army of Observation, and Fleet inthe Baltic," instead of which came Zero and Kloster-Zeven, havemade him very sensitive. However, all difficulties are got over;Plenipotentiary Knyphausen, Pitt, Britannic Majesty and everybodystriving to be rational and practical; and at London, 11th April,1758, Subsidy Treaty, admirably brief and to the point, isfinished: [In four short Articles; given in Helden-Geschichte, v. 16, 17.] "That Friedrich shallhave Four Million Thalers, that is, 670,000 pounds; payable inLondon to his order, in October, this Year; which sum Friedrichengages to spend wholly in maintenance and increase of his Army forbehoof of the common object;--neither party to dream of making theleast shadow of peace or truce without the other." Of Baltic Fleet,there is nothing said; nor, in regard to that, was anything done,this year or afterwards; highly important as it would have been toFriedrich, with the Navies so called of both Sweden and Russiadoing their worst upon him. "Why not spare me a small Englishsquadron, and blow these away?" Nor was the why ever made clear tohim; the private why being, that Czarish Majesty had, last year,intimated to Britannic, "Any such step on your part will annihilatethe now old friendship of Russia and England, and be taken as adirect declaration of War!"--which Britannic Majesty, forcommercial and miscellaneous reasons, hoped always might beavoided. Be silent, therefore, on that of Baltic Fleet.

In all the spoken or covenanted points the Treaty was accuratelykept: 670,000 pounds, two-thirds of a million very nearly, will, inpunctual promptitude, come to Friedrich's hand, were October here.And in regard to Ferdinand (a point left silent, this too),Friedrich's expectations were exceeded, not the contrary, so longas Pitt endured. This is the Third English-Prussian Treaty of theSeven-Years War, as we said above; and it is the First that tookpractical effect: this was followed by three others, year afteryear, of precisely the same tenor, which were likewise practicaland punctually kept,--the last of them, "12th December, 1760," hadreference to Subsidy for 1761:--and before another came, Pitt wasout. So that, in all, Friedrich had Four Subsidies; 670,000 poundsx4=2,680,000 pounds of English money altogether:--and it iscomputed by some, there was never as much good fighting otherwisehad out of all the 800,000,000 pounds we have funded in thatpeculiar line of enterprise. [First Treaty, 16th January, 1756 (isin Helden-Geschichte, iii. 681), "We willoppose by arms any foreign Armament entering Germany;"Second Treaty, 11th January, 1757 (never published till 1802), isin Scholl, iii. 30-32: "one million subsidy, a Fleet &c." (not KEPTat all); after which,Third Treaty (the FIRST really issuing in subsidy and performance)is 11th April, 1758 (given in Helden-Geschichte, italic> v. 17); Fourth (really SECOND), 7th December, 1758 (Ib. v.752); Fifth (THIRD), 9th November, 1759; Sixth (FOURTH), 12thDecember, 1760. See PREUSS, ii. 124 n.]

Pitt had no difficulty with his Parliament, or with his Public, inregard to this Subsidy; the contrary rather. Seldom, if ever, wasEngland in such a heat of enthusiasm about any Foreign Man as aboutFriedrich in these months since Rossbach and what had followed.Celebrating this "Protestant Hero," authentic new Champion ofChristendom; toasting him, with all the honors, out of itsWorcester and other Mugs, very high indeed. Take these ThreeClippings from the old Newspapers, omitting all else; and rekindlethese, by good inspection and consideration, into feeble symboliclamps of an old illumination, now fallen so extinct.

No. 1. REVEREND MR. WHITFIELD AND THE PROTESTANT HERO. "Monday,January 2d," 1758, "was observed as a Day of Thanksgiving, at theChapel in Tottenham-Court Road [brand-new Chapel, still standingand acting, though now in a dingier manner], by Mr. Whitfield'speople, for the signal Victories gained by the King of Prussia overhis Enemies. [ Gentleman's Magazine, xxviii.(for 1758), p. 41.]--'Why rage the Heathen; why do the peopleimagine a vain thing? Sinful beings we, perilously sunk in sinagainst the Most High:--but they, do they think that, by earthlypropping and hoisting, their unblessed Chimera, with his ThreeHats, can sweep away the Eternal Stars!'"--In this strain, Isuppose: Protestant Hero and Heaven's long-suffering Patiences andMercies in raising up such a one for a backsliding generation;doubtless with much unction by Mr. Whitfield.

No. 2. KING OF PRUSSIA'S BIRTHDAY (Tuesday, January 24th)."This being the Birthday of the King of Prussia, who then enteredinto the forty-seventh year of his age, the same was observed withilluminations and other demonstrations of joy;"--throughout theCities of London and Westminster, "great rejoicings andilluminations," it appears, [ Gentleman's Magazine, italic> xxviii. (for 1758), p. 43; and vol. xxix. p. 42, for nextyear's birthday, and p. 81 for another kind of celebration.]--nowshining so feebly at a century's distance!--No. 3 is still morecurious; and has deserved from us a little special inquiring into.

"Miss Bab. Wyndham, of Salisbury, sister of Henry Wyndham, Esq., ofthat City, a maiden lady of ample fortune, has ordered her bankerto prepare the sum of 1,000 pounds to be immediately remitted, inher own name, as a present to the King of Prussia." [London Chronicle, March 14th-16th, 1758; Lloyd's Evening Post; &c. &c.] Doubtless to the Kingof Prussia's surprise, and that of London Society, which would notwant for commentaries on such a thing!

Before long, the Subsidy Treaty being now out, and the Wyndhamtopic new again, London Society reads, in the same Newspaper, aDocumentary Piece, calculated to help in its commentaries. There isgood likelihood of guess, though no certainty now attainable, thatthe "English Lady" referred to may be Miss Bab. herself;--of whoselong-vanished biography, and brisk, airy, nomadic ways, we catchhereby a faint shadow, momentary, but conceivable, and sufficientfor us:--

"TO THE AUTHORS OF THE LONDON CHRONICLE. London Chronicle, of 13th-15th April, 1758.

"The following Account, which is a real fact, will serve to showwith what punctuality and exactness the King of Prussia attends tothe most minute affairs, and how open he is to applications fromall persons.

"An English Lady being possessed of actions [shares] in the EmbdenCompany, and having occasion to raise money on them, repaired toAntwerp [some two years ago, as will be seen], and made applicationfor that purpose to a Director of the Company, established there bythe King of Prussia for the managing all affairs relative thereto.This person," Van Erthorn the name of him, "very willingly enteredinto treaty with her; but the sum he offered to lend being farshort of what the actions would bring, and he also insisting onforfeiture of her right in them, if not redeemed in twelve months,--she broke off with him, and had recourse to some merchants atAntwerp, who were inclinable to treat with her on much moreequitable terms. The proceeding necessarily brought the partiesbefore this Director for receiving his sanction, which wasessential to the solidity of the agreement; and he, finding he waslike to lose the advantage he had flattered himself with, disputedthe authenticity of the actions, and thereby threw her into suchdiscredit, as to render all attempts to raise money on themineffectual. Upon this the Lady wrote a Letter by the common postto his Majesty of Prussia, accompanied with a Memorial complainingof the treatment she had received from the Director; and shelikewise enclosed the actions themselves in another letter to afriend at Berlin. By the return of the post, his Majestycondescended to answer her Letter; and the actions were returnedauthenticated; which so restored her credit, that in a few hoursall difficulties were removed relating to the transaction she hadin hand; and it is more than probable the Director has felt hisMajesty's resentment for his ill-behavior.--The Lady's Letter wasas follows:--

"'ANTWERP, 19th February, 1756.

"'SIR,--Having had the happiness to pay my court to your Majestyduring a pretty long residence at Berlin [say in Voltaire's time;Miss Barbara's "Embden Company," I observe, was the first of thetwo, date 1750; that of 1753 is not hers], and to receive suchmarks of favor from their Majesties the Queens [a Barbara capableof shining in the Royal soirees at Monbijou, of talking to, or of,your Voltaires and lions, and investing moneys in the new EmbdenCompany] as I shall ever retain a grateful sense of,--I presume toflatter myself that your Majesty will not be offended at therespectful liberty I have taken in laying before you my complaintsagainst one Van Erthorn, a Director of the Embden China Company,whose bad behavior to me, as set forth in my Memorial, hath forcedme to make a very long and expensive stay at this place; and, asthe considerable interest I have in that Company may farthersubject me to his caprices, I cannot forbear laying my grievancesat the foot of your Majesty's throne; most respectfullysupplicating your Majesty that you would be graciously pleased togive orders that this Director shall not act towards me for thefuture as he hath done hitherto.

"'I hope for this favor from your Majesty's sovereign equity; and Ishall never cease offering up my ardent prayers for the prosperityof your glorious reign; having the honor to be, with the mostrespectful zeal, Sir, your Majesty's most humble, most obedient,and most devoted servant, * * *'

"THE KING OF PRUSSIA'S ANSWER.

"'POTSDAM, 26th February, 1756.

"'MADAM,--I received the Letter of the 19th instant, which youthought proper to write to me; and was not a little displeased tohear of the bad behavior of one of the Directors of the AsiaticCompany of Embden towards you, of which you were forced tocomplain. I shall direct your grievances to be examined, and havejust now despatched my orders for that purpose to Lenz, myPresident of the Chamber of East Friesland,' Chief Judge in thoseparts. [Seyfarth, ii. 139.] 'You may assure yourself the strictestjustice shall be done you that the case will admit. God keep you inhis holy protection. FRIEDRICH.'"

Whether this refers to Miss Barbara or not, there is no affirming.But the interesting point is, Friedrich did receive and accept MissBarbara's 1,000 pounds. The Prussian account, which calls her "anEnglish JUNGFRAU, LADY SALISBURY, who actually sent a sum ofmoney," [Preuss, ii. 124, whose reference is merely "Gentleman's Magazine for 1758." Both in the ANNUALREGISTER of that Year (i. 86),and in the Gentleman'sMagazine, pp. 142, 177, the above Paragraph andLetters are copied from the Newspapers, but without the smallestcommentary (there or elsewhere), or any mention of a "LadySalisbury."] would not itself be satisfactory: but, by good chance,there is still living, in Salisbury City, a very aged Gentleman,well known for his worth, and intelligence on such matters, who,being inquired of, makes reply at once: That the First Earl ofMalmesbury (who was of his acquaintance, and had many anecdotes andreminiscences of Friedrich, all noted down, it was understood, withdiplomatic exactitude, but never yet published or becomeaccessible) did, as "I well remember, among other things, mentionthe King's telling him that he," the King, "had received a ThousandPounds from Miss Wyndham; with a part of which he had bought theFlute then in his hand." [Letter from John Fowler, Esq.,"Salisbury, 2d April, 1860," to a Friend of mine (PENES ME):of Barbara's identity, or otherwise, with the Antwerp Embden Lady,Mr. F. can say nothing.] Which latter circumstance, too, iscurious. For, at all times, however straitened Friedrich'sExchequer might be, it was his known habit, during this War, tohave always, before the current year ended, the ways and meanscompletely settled and provided for the year coming; so thateverything could be at once paid in money (good money or bad,--goodstill up to this date);--And nothing was observed to fall short, somuch as the customary liberality of his gifts to those about him.I infer, therefore: Friedrich had decided to lay out this 1,000pounds in what he would call luxuries, chiefly gifts,--and, amongother things, had said to himself, "I will have a new flute, too!"Probably one of his last; for I understand he had, by this time(Malmesbury's time, 1772), ceased much playing, and ceasedaltogether not long after. [Preuss, i. 371-373.]

James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury, was Resident at Berlin,1772: that is all the date we have for the King's saying, "And withpart of it I bought this Flute!" Date of Lord Malmesbury's mentionof it at Salisbury, we have none,--likeliest there might be variousdates; a thing mentioned more than once, and not improvable bydating. The Wyndhams still live in the Close of Salisbury;a respected and well-known Family; record of them (none of Barbarathere, or elsewhere except here) to be found in the CountyHistories. [Britton's Beauties of England and Wales, italic> xv. part ii. p. 118; Hoare's Salisbury italic> (mistaken, p. 815); &c.] I only know farther, Barbara diedMay, 1765, "aged and wealthy," and "with the bulk of her fortuneendowed a Charity, to be called 'Wyndham College,'" [ANNUALREGISTER (for 1765), viii. 86.]--which I hope still flourishes.Enough on this small Wyndham matter; which is nearly altogetherEnglish, but in which Friedrich too has his indefeasible property.

FRIEDRICH, AS INDEED PITT'S PEOPLE AND OTHERS HAVE DONE,TAKES THE FIELD UNCOMMONLY EARLY: FRIEDRICH GOES UPON SCHWEIDNITZ,SCHWEIDNITZ, AS THE PREFACE TO WHATEVER HIS CAMPAIGN MAY BE.

While this Subsidy Treaty is getting settled in England, DukeFerdinand has his French in full cackle of universal flight;and before the signing of it (April 11th), every feather of them isover the Rhine; Duke Ferdinand busy preparing to follow. Gloriousnews, day after day, coming in, for Pitt, for Miss Barbara and forall English souls, Royal Highness of Cumberland hardly excepted!The "Descent on Rochefort," last Autumn, had a good dealdisappointed Pitt and England;--an expensively elaborateExpedition, military and naval; which could not "descend" at all,when it got to the point; but merely went groping about, on themuddy shores of the Charente, holding councils of war yonder;"cannonaded the Isle of Aix for two hours;" and returned homewithout result of any kind, Courts-martial following on it, as toousual. This was an unsuccessful first-stroke for Pitt. Indeed, henever did much succeed in those Descents on the French Coast,though never again so ill as this time. Those are a kind of thingsthat require an exactitude as of clockwork, in all their parts:and Pitt's Generalcies and War-Offices,--we know whether they wereof the Prussian type or of the Swedish! A very grievous hindranceto Pitt;--which he will not believe to be quite incurable.Against which he, for his part, stands up, in grim earnest, andwith his whole strength; and is now, and at all times, doing whatin him lies to abate or remedy it:--successfully, to an unexpecteddegree, within the next four years. From America, he has decided torecall Lord Loudon, as a cunctatory haggling mortal, the reverse ofa General; how very different from his Austrian Cousin![Cousins certainly enough; their Progenitors were Brothers, of thatHouse, about 1568,--when Matthew, the cadet, went "into Livonia,"into foreign Soldiering (Papa having fallen Prisoner "at the Battleof Langside," 1568, and the Family prospects being low); from thisMatthew comes, through a scrips of Livonian Soldiers, the famedAustrian Loudon. Douglas, Peerage of Scotland, italic> p. 425; &c. &c. VIE DE LOUDON (ill-informed on that pointand some others) says, the first Livonian Loudon came fromAyrshire, "in the fourteenth century".] "Abercrombie may bebetter," hopes he;--was better, still not good. But already in thegloomy imbroglio over yonder, Pitt discerns that one Amherst (theson of people unimportant at the hustings) has military talent:and in this puddle of a Rochefort Futility, he has got his eye on ayoung Officer named Wolfe, who was Quartermaster of the Expedition;a young man likewise destitute of Parliamentary connection, but whomay be worth something. Both of whom will be heard of! In a fouryears' determined effort of this kind, things do improve: and itwas wonderful, to what amount,--out of these chaotic War-Officeslittle better than the Swedish, and ignorant Generalcies fullyworse than the Swedish,--Pitt got heroic successes and workreally done.

On Pitt, amid confused clouds, there is bright dawn rising;and Friedrich too, for the last month, in Breslau, has a cheerfulprospect on that Western side of his horizon. Here is one of hisPostscripts, thrown off in Autograph, which Duke Ferdinand willread with pleasure: "I congratulate you, MON CHER, with my wholeheart! May you FLEUR-DE-LYS every French skin of them; cutting outon their"--what shall we say (LEUR IMPRIMANT SUR LE CUE)!--"theInitials of the Peace of Westphalia, and packing them across theRhine," tattooed in that latest extremity of fashion! [Friedrich toDuke Ferdinand, "Grussau, 19th March, 1758:" in Knesebeck, Herzog Ferdinand, i. 64. Herzog Ferdinandwahrend des 7-jahrigen Krieges ("from the English audPrussian Archives") is the full Title of Knesebeck's Book:LETTERS altogether; not very intelligently edited, but well worthreading by every student, military and civil: 2 vols. 8vo.Hannover, 1857.]

Friedrich, grounding partly on those Rhine aspects, has his ownscheme laid for Campaign 1758. It is the old scheme tried twicealready: to go home upon your Enemy swiftly, with your utmostcollective strength, and try to strike into the heart of him beforehe is aware. Friedrich has twice tried this; the second time withsuccess, respectable though far short of complete. Weakened as now,but with Ferdinand likely to find the French in employment, hemeans to try it again; and is busy preparing at Neisse andelsewhere, though keeping it a dead secret for the time. There is,in fact, no other hopeful plan for him, if this prove feasible atall. Double your velocity, you double your momentum. One's weightis given,--weight growing less and less;--but not, or not in thesame way and degree, one's velocity, one's rightness of aim.Weight given: it is only by doubling or trebling his velocity thata man can make his momentum double or treble, as needed!Friedrich means to try it, readers will see how,--were the Fort ofSchweidnitz once had; for which object Friedrich watches theweather like a very D'Argens, eager that the frost would go.Recapture of Schweidnitz, the last speck of Austrianism wiped awaythere; that is evidently the preface to whatsoever day's-work maybe ahead.

March 15th, frost being now off, Friedrich quits Breslau andD'Argens,--his Head-quarter thenceforth Kloster-Grussau, nearLandshut, troops all getting cantoned thereabout, to keep Bohemiaquiet,--and goes at once upon Schweidnitz. With the top of themorning, so to speak; means to have Schweidnitz before campaigningusually can begin, or common laborers take their tools in thistrade. The Austrian Commandant has been greatly strengthening theworks; he had, at first, some 8,000 of garrison; but the threemonths' blockade has been tight upon him and them; and it is hopedthe thing can be done.

APRIL 1st-2d,--Siege-material being got to the ground, and SiegeDivision and Covering Army all in their places,--in spite of theheavy rains, we open our first parallel, Austrian Commandant notnoticing till it is nearly done. April 8th, we have our batteriesbuilt; and burst out, at our best rate, into cannonade; aiming agood deal at "Fort No. 1," called also "GALGEN or Gallows Fort,"which we esteem the principal. Cannonade continues day after day,prospers tolerably on Gallows Fort,"--though the wet weather, andhardship to the troops, are grievous circumstances, and makeFriedrich doubly urgent. "Try it by storm!" counsels Balbi, who isEngineer. Night of APRIL 15th-16th storm takes place; with suchvigor and such cunning, that the Gallows Fort is got for almostnothing (loss of ten men);-and few hours after, Austria beat thechamade. [Tempelhof, ii. 21-25; Helden-Geschichte, italic> v. 109-123: above all, Tielcke, Beytrage zurKriegs-Kunst und zur Geschichte des Krieges von 1756 bis 1763 italic> (6 vols. 4to, Freyberg, 1775-1786), iv. 43-76. Volume iv.is wholly devoted to Schweidnitz and its successive Sieges.]Fifty-one new Austrian guns, for one item, and about 7,000 poundsof money. Prisoners of War the Garrison, 8,000 gone to 4,900;with such stores as we can guess, of ours and theirs added:Balbi was Prussian Engineer-in-Chief, Treskau Captain of theSiege;--other particulars I spare the reader.

Unfortunate Schweidnitz underwent four Sieges, four captures orrecaptures, in this War;--upon all of which we must be quitesummary, only the results of them important to us. For the curiousin sieges, especiaIly for the scientifically curious, there is, bya Captain Tielcke, excellent account of all these SchweidnitzSieges, and of others;--Artillery-Captain Tielcke, in the Saxon orSaxon-Russian service; whom perhaps we shall transiently fall inwith, on a different field, in the course of this Year.

Chapter XII.

SIEGE OF OLMUTZ.

Fouquet, on the first movement towards Schweidnitz, had beendetached from Landshut to sweep certain Croat Parties out of Glatz;Ziethen, with a similar view, into Troppau Country; both whicherrands were at once perfectly done. Daun lies behind the BohemianFrontier (betimes in the field he too, "arrived at Konigsgratz,March 13th"); and is, with all diligence, perfecting his newlevies; intrenching himself on all points, as man seldom did;"felling whole forests," they say, building abatis within abatis;--not doubting, especially on these Ziethen-Fouquet symptoms, butFriedrich's Campaign is to be an Invasion of Bohemia again."Which he shall not do gratis!" hopes Daun; and, indeed, judges saythe entrance would hardly have been possible on that side, hadFriedrich tried it; which he did not.

Schweidnitz being done, and Daun deep in the Bohemian problem,--Friedrich, in an unintelligible manner, breaks out from Grussau andthe Landshut region (April 19th-25th), not straight southward, asDaun had been expecting, but straight southeastward through Neisse,Jagerndorf: all gone, or all but Ziethen and Fouquet gone, thatway;--meaning who shall say what, when news of it comes to Daun?In two divisions, from 30 to 40,000 strong; through Jagerndorf,ever onward through Troppau, and not till THEN turning southward:indubitable march of that cunning Enemy; rapidly proceeding, his40,000 and he, along those elevated upland countries, watershed ofthe Black Sea and the Baltic, bleakly illumined by the April sun;a march into the mists of the future tense, which do not yet clearthemselves to Daun. Seeing the march turn southward at Troppau, alight breaks on Daun: "Ha! coming round upon Bohemia from the east,then?" That is Daun's opinion, for some time yet; and heimmediately starts that way, to save a fine magazine he has atLeutomischl over there. Daun, from Skalitz near Konigsgratz wherehe is, has but some eighty miles to march, for the King's hundredand fifty; and arrives in those parts few days after the King;posts himself at Leutomischl, veiled in Pandours. Not for two weeksmore does he ascertain it to have been a march upon the OlmutzCountry, and the intricate forks of the Morawa River; with a viewto besieging Olmutz, by this wily Enemy! Upon which Daun did striveto bestir himself thitherward, at last; and, though very slow andhesitative, his measures otherwise were unexceptionable, and turnedout luckier than had been expected by some people.

Olmutz is an ancient pleasant little City, in the Plains of Mahren,romantic, indistinct to the English mind; with Domes, with Steepleseminent beyond its size,--population little above 10,000 souls;--has its Prince-Archbishop and ecclesiastic outfittings, with whomFriedrich has lodged in his time. City which trades in leather, andRussian and Moldavian droves of oxen. Memorable to the Slavicpopulations for its grand Czech Library, which was carried away bythe Swedes, happily into thick night; [To Stralsund (1645), "andhas not since been heard of."] also for that poor little Wenzel oftheirs (last heir of the Bohemian Czech royalties, whom no readerhas the least memory of) being killed on the streets here;--uncertain, to this day, by whom, though for whose benefit thatdagger-stroke ended is certain enough; [Supra, vol. v. p. 118.]--poor little Wenzel's dust lies under that highest Dome, of the oldCathedral yonder, if anybody thought of such a thing in hotpractical times. Poor Lafayette, too, lodged here in prison, whenthe Austrians seized him. City trades in leather and live stock, wesaid; has much to do with artillery, much with ecclesiastry;--andFriedrich besieged it, for seven weeks, in the hot summer days of1758, to no purpose. Friedrich has been in Olmiitz more than oncebefore; his Schwerin once took it in a single day, and it was hisfor months, in the old Moravian-Foray time: but the place ischanged now; become an arsenal or military storehouse of Austria;strongly fortified, and with a Captain in it, who distinguisheshimself by valiant skill and activity on this occasion.

Friedrich's Olmutz Enterprise, the rather as it was unsuccessful,has not wanted critics. And certainly, according to the ordinaryrules of cautious prudence, could these have been Friedrich's inhis present situation, it was not to be called a prudentEnterprise. But had Friedrich's arrangements been punctuallyfulfilled, and Olmutz been got in fair time, as was possible orprobable, the thing might have been done very well. Duke Ferdinand,in these early May days, is practically making preparations tofollow the French across the Rhine; no fear of French Armiesinterfering with us this year. Dohna has the Swedes locked inStralsund (capable of being starved, had not the thaw come); and inHinter-Pommern he has General Platen, with a tolerable Detachment,watching Fermor and his Russians; Dohna, with Platen, may entertainthe Russians for a little, when they get on way,--which we knowwill be at a slow pace, and late in the season. Prince Henricommands in Saxony, say with 30,000;--King's vicegerent and otherself there, "Do YOUR wisest and promptest; hold no councils ofwar!" Prince Henri, altogether on the aggressive as yet, is waitingwhat Reichs Army there may be;--has already had Mayer and FreeCorps careering about in Franken Country once and again, tearing upthe incipiencies and preparations, with the usual emphasis; and ishimself intending to follow thither, in a still more impressivemanner. Friedrich's calculation is, Prince Henri will have hishands free for a good few weeks yet. Which proved true enough, sofar as that went.

And now, supposing Olmutz ours, and Vienna itself open to ourinsults, does not, by rapid suction, every armed Austrian flowthitherward; Germany all drained of them: in which case, what is tohinder Prince Henri from stepping into Bohmen, by the MetalMountains; capturing Prag; getting into junction with us here, andtumbling Austria at a rate that will astonish her! Her, and hermiscellaneous tagraggery of Confederates, one and all.Konigsberg, Stralsund, Bamberg; Russians, Swedes, Reichsfolk,--here, in Mahren, will be the crown of the game for all these.Prosper in Mahren, all these are lamed; one right stroke at theheart, the limbs become manageable quantities! This was Friedrich'sprogram; and had not imperfections of execution, beyond what waslooked for, and also a good deal of plain ill-luck, intervened,this bold stroke for Mahren might have turned out far otherwisethan it did.

The march thither (started from Neisse April 27th) was beautiful:Friedrich with vanguard and first division; Keith with rear-guardand second, always at a day's distance; split into proper columns,for convenience of road and quarter in the hungry countries;threading those silent mountain villages, and upper streamlets ofOder and Morawa: Ziethen waving intrusive Croateries far off;Fouquet, in thousands of wagons, shoving on from Neisse, "in foursections," with the due intervals, under the due escorts, theimmensity of stores and siege-furniture, through Jagerndorf,through Troppau, and onwards; [Table of his routes and stages inTEMPELHOF, ii. 46.]--punctual everybody; besiegers and siegematerials ready on their ground by the set day. Daun too had madespeed to save his Magazine. Daun was at Leutomischl, May 5th,--aforty miles to west of the Morawa,--few days after Friedrich hadarrived in those countries by the eastern or left bank, by Troppau,Gibau, Littau, Aschmeritz, Prossnitz; and a week before Friedrichhad finished his reconnoitrings, campings, and taken position tohis mind. Camps, four or more (shrank in the end to three), on bothbanks of the River; a matter of abstruse study; so that it was May12th before Friedrich first took view of Olmutz itself, and couldfairly begin his Problem,--Daun, with his best Tolpatcheries, stillunable to guess what it was.

Of the Siege I propose to say little, though the accounts of it areample, useful to the Artillerist and Engineer. If the reader can bemade to conceive it as a blazing loud-sounding fact, on which, andon Friedrich in it, the eyes of all Europe were fixed for someweeks, it may rest now in impressive indistinctness to us. Keith isCaptain of the Siege, whom all praise for his punctual firmness ofprogress; Balbi as before, is Engineer, against whom goes thecriticism, Keith's first of all, that he "opened his first parallel800 yards too far off,"--which much increased the labor, and theexpenditure of useless gunpowder, shot having no effect at such adistance. There were various criticisms: some real, as this; someimaginary, as that Friedrich grudged gunpowder, the fact being thathe had it not, except after carriage from Neisse, say a hundred andtwenty miles off,--Troppau, his last Silesian Town, or safe place(his for the moment), is eighty miles;--and was obliged to wastenone of it.

Friedrich is not thought to shine in the sieging line as he does inthe fighting; which has some truth in it, though not very much.When Friedrich laid himself to engineering, I observe, he did itwell: see Neisse, Graudenz, Magdeburg. His Balbi went wrong withthe parallels, on this occasion; many things went wrong: but thetruly grievous thing was his distance from Silesia and thesupplies. A hundred and twenty miles of hill-carriage, eighty ofthem disputable, for every shot of ammunition and for every loaf ofbread; this was hard to stand:--and perhaps no War-apparatus but aPrussian, with a Friedrich for sole chief-manager, could have stoodit so long. Friedrich did stand it, in a wonderfully tolerablemanner; and was continuing to stand it, and make fair progress;and it is not doubted he would have got Olmutz, had not thereanother fact come on him, which proved to be of unmanageablenature. The actual loss, namely, of one Convoy, after so many hadcome safe, and when, as appears, there was now only one wanted andno more!--Let us attend to this a little.

Had Daun, at Olmutz, been as a Duke of Cumberland relievingTournay, rushing into fight at Fontenoy, like a Hanover White-Horse, neck clothed with thunder, and head destitute of knowledge,--how lucky had it been for Friedrich! But Daun knows his tradebetter. Daun, though superior in strength, sits on his Magazine,clear not to fight. By no art of manoeuvring, had Friedrich muchtried it, or hoped it, this time, could Daun have been brought togive battle. As Fabins Cunctator he is here in his right place;taking impregnable positions, no man with better skill in thatbranch of business; pushing out parties on the Troppau road;and patiently waiting till this dangerous Enemy, with such endlessshifts in him, come in sight perhaps of his last cartridge, orperhaps make some stumble on the way towards that consummation.Daun is aware of Friedrich's surprising qualities. Bos against Leo,Daun feels these procedures to be altogether feline (FELIS-LEONINE); such stealthy glidings about, deceptive motions,appearances; then such a rapidity of spring upon you, and with sucha set of claws,--destructive to bovine or rhinoceros nature:in regard to all which, Bos, if he will prosper, surely cannot betoo cautious. It was remarked of Daun, that he was scrupulouslycareful; never, in the most impregnable situations, neglecting theleast precaution, but punctiliously fortifying himself to the lastitem, even to a ridiculous extent, say Retzow and the critics.It was the one resource of Daun: truly a solid stubborn patience isin the man; stubborn courage too, of bovine-rhinoceros type;--stupid, if you will, but doing at all times honestly his best andhis wisest without flurry; which character is often of surprisingvalue in War; capable of much mischief, now and then, to quickerpeople. Rhinoceros Daun did play his Leo a bad prank more thanonce; and this of barring him out from Olmutz was one of them,perhaps the worst after Kolin.

Daun's management of this Olmutz business is by no means reckonedbrilliant, even in the Fabius line; but, on the contrary, inert,dim-minded, inconclusive; and in reality, till almost the verylast, he had been of little help to the besieged. For near threeweeks (till May 23d) Daun sat at Leutomischl, immovable on hisbread-basket there, forty or more miles from Olmutz; and did notsee that a Siege was meant. May 27th-28th, Balbi opened his firstparallel, in that mistaken way; four days before which, Daun doesmove inwards a march or so, to Zwittau, to Gewitsch (still thirtymiles to west of Olmutz); still thinking of Bohemia, not of anysiege; still hanging by the mountains and the bread-basket.And there,--about Gewitsch, siege or no siege, Daun sits downagain; pretty much immovable, through the five weeks ofbombardment; and,--except that Loudon and the Light Horse are verydiligent to do a mischief, "attempting our convoys, more than once,to no purpose, and alarming some of our outposts almost everynight, but every night beaten off,"--does, in a manner, nothing;sits quiet, behind his impenetrable veil of Pandours, and lets thebombardment take its course. Had not express Order come from Viennaon him, it is thought Daun would have sat till Olmutz was taken;and would then have gone back to Leutomischl and impregnable postsin the Hills. On express order, he-- But gather, first, these poorsparks in elucidation:--

"The 'destructive sallies' and the like, at Olmutz, wereprincipally an affair of the gazetteers and the imagination: but itis certain, Olmutz this time was excellently well defended;the Commandant, a vigorous skilful man, prompt to seize advantages;and Garrison and Townsfolk zealously helping: so that Friedrich'sprogress was unusually slow. Friedrich's feelings, all this while,and Balbi's (who 'spent his first 1,220 shots entirely in vain,'beginning so far off), may be judged of,--the sound of him to Balbisometimes stern enough! As when (June 9th) he personally visitsBalbi's parallels (top of the Tafelberg yonder); and inquires,'When do you calculate to get done, then?' West side of Olmutz andof the River (east side lies mostly under water), there is thebombarding; seventy-one heavy guns; Keith, in his expertest manner,doing all the captaincies: Keith has about 8,000 of foot and horse,busy and vigilant, with their faces to the east. In a ring of fourcamps, or principally three (Prossnitz, Littau, and Neustadt, whichis across the River), all looking westward or northwestward, some,